LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1858. ABRAHAM LINCOLN A N 1) THE MEN OF HIS TIME BY ROBERT H. BROWNE, M. D. IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME I CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & PYE NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS Copyright, 1901, bt the Wbstekn Methodist Book Conobkn a- "^ CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. Page. Abraham Lincoln— Son of a Hardy Western Pioneer— Thomas Lincoln— Characteristics of the Father— How Great Men are developed— Some Examples: Philip of Macedon, Caesar, Savon- arola, Martin Luther— The Birth of Freedom in England: Magna Charta, Robert Bruce, Hampden and Cromwell, Will- iam of Orange— The Founding of our Nation— What Luther had accomplished— What Cromwell had accomplished— What the Development of our Country has Meant to the World— Our Relation to Great Britain and Other Countries— What our Future may be— The Time of the Revolution— The Condition of the Colonies— The Leader, Washington: His Training and Fitness— Our Second Great Leader, Abraham Lincoln— Com- parison with Others— What he accomplished 11 CHAPTER IL "Little Abe"— Slavery— God's Chosen Leader— Characteristics- Friend of the Common People— His True Relation to the Human Race — How he became a Leader— The Early Settlers of our Country— The Lincoln Ancestry— Settlement of Ken- tucky— Boone and his Associates— Death of Abraham, the Pioneer— The Lidian Question 36 CHAPTER III. Thomas Lincoln and his Early Surroundings in Kentucky— His Trade— Implements— Condition of the Family— Character- Marriage— Removal to Nolin's Creek Farm— Birth of Abraham Lincoln— Description of Nancy Hanks— Lincoln, of the Com- mon People, not ashamed of his Lineage— "God's Grinding Out" of the Slavery Question— Our Visit to his Birthplace in 1862— Description by an Old Man— Testimony of Affection to "Abe"— Elizabethtown— Nolin's Creek Farm— His Sincere Friends— Austin Gallagher 57 3 4 COXTEXTS. CHAPTER IT. Pago. The Task Before Lincoln— Story of a Woman near Elizabethtown —Two Removals Westward— The Blight of Slavery— The Ham- mering Out of Character— The Great Westward Movement- How Homes were made — The Pigeon Creek Settlement— The Destruction of Forests— Customs— Manner of Living, and Habits SI CHAPTER T. Death in Pigeon Creek Settlement— Abe loses his Mother— Abe's Journey of Sixty Miles for a Minister— The Dreary Winter— The Student— His Early Books — Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Johnston— Happier Days, with Home Comfort and Care — Running a Ferry-boat — More Study — The First Trip Down the Mississippi — The Slave-market of New Orleans — Journey to Illinois — "Neutral Ground" — "The Cold Winter" — Rail-splitting 103 CHAPTER VI. Springfield — The Freeze of December 20, 1S36 — Weedman's Deer Park — "Internal Improvements" — Navigation of the Sangamon — Proposed Trip to New Orleans — Passing the Dam near New Salem — The New Orleans Slave-market again — Th:>mas Lin- coln's Death — New Salem selected a.s a Home — The Black Hawk War — Abe's Election as Captain — Experience in the Field — Stillman's Run — Black Hawk — Mr. Lincoln's Descrip- tion of his Military Experience — Clerking for Mr. Off ut 130 CHAPTER YII. Forming of Character — '"Honest Abe" — Trials of Strength — Navi- gation of the Sangamon — Newton Graham — Kirkham's Gram- mar — Candidate for the Legislature — New Acquaintances and Future Friends— Political Beliefs— Defeat— "A Country Store" in New Salem: A Losing Venture — Law-reading in the Office of Logan and Stuart— The Bible. Blackstone, Coke, Chitty. Greenleaf, Story. Kent, and Others for Three Years' Drill, until, "Tou know as much about it as we do" — A Favorite Ad- vocate all over Central Illinois, alongside Douglas and Others . . 155 CONTENTS. 5 CHAPTER VIII. Page. Studying Surveying— Work under Calhoun— Positmaster of New Salem— Removal to Springfield in 1836— Canvass for the Legis- lature— Elected— His Work at Vandalia— Re-elected— Declara- tion for Female Suffrage in Third Canvass— The Canal Enter- prise—Capital Removal to Springfield— Some of his Associates —The Slaverj' Question— Signed Protest against Pro-slavery Resolutions ITG CHAPTER IX. The Original Policy of our Government toward Slavery — Its Growth — Henry Clay — Compromise of 1820 — Compromisers — Slavery Leaders, Calhoun and Jefferson Davis— Illinois Consti- tutional Convention Fight— Prevalent Opinion that Slavery Agitation was Wrong — Lovejoy — Invasion of Texas — Lincoln's Wrestling Match— Great Physical Strength 202 CHAPTER X. Beginning of Acquaintance of Lincoln and Douglas— Douglas: An- cestry, Education, Development: An Intellectual Giant— Arrival at Jacksonville, 111., in 1833, at Twenty Years of Age— Book- keeping, Teaching, Law-reading, Elected to Legislature at Twenty-two— Nimmo Browne: Ancestry, Training, Education- Acquaintance with Douglas— Political Beliefs— Friendly Dis- putes—Building the Springfield Capitol— Meeting Lincoln- Comparison of Douglas and Lincoln— The Career of Douglas.. .218 CHAPTER XI. Discussion between Douglas and Browne— On Slavery Extension- Policy of the Nation toward Slavery— Democratic Policy— A Warning against Abolition Senltiments publicly expressed— Browne's Description of Lincoln— Douglas's Estimate of Lin- coln—Lincoln's Law Partnership with Stuart— The Embar- rassments of Politics— The Campaign of 1840— Increase of Acquaintance and a Wider Sphere of Influence — The Panic of 1837-38— Lincoln's Financial Beliefs— Hard' Times, and How the People passed through them— Practicing Law— Saving a "Homestead." 231) 6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. Page. The Comparative Standing of Some Political Leaders: Lincoln, Douglas, Clay, Jackson, Webster, Van Buren, Harrison, Cass, Scott, Buchanan, Jefferson Davis — Lincoln's Growing Popular- ity — An Affair of Honoi— General Shields — The Logan-Lincoln Partnership — Some Famous Students or Partners with Logan — Some of the Able and Famous Men of the Springfield Bar — Lincoln's Marriage — The Campaign of 1844 — Some Good Tem- perance Work— Clay's Third and Final Defeat for President- Lincoln's Inspiration and Prophecy — The Admission of Texas. .264 CHAPTER XIII. The Mexican War — General Taylor — Victories and Defeats — As- tonishing Continental Development — Our New Territory and its Disposal— The Pro-slavery Plan— Change of the "Front of Bat- tle" to Kansas-Nebraska — Lincoln's Election to Congress — Cartwright — Douglas as Congressman-at-Large and Senator— A Lifetime Friendship— "Spot" Resolutions 288 CHAPTER XIV. Campaign of 1848— Mr. Lincoln's Canvass in the East— The Wil- mot Proviso— Mr. Lincoln's Plan of Gradual Emancipation — Rejection — John A. Logan and the Peace Convention at Rich- mond in 1861 — Mr. Lincoln's Enlightenment on the Intentions of the Slave Power — Clay, Thurlow Weed, Horace Greeley, William H. Seward, Senator Clayton, General Scott, Calhoun, Jefferson Davis, General Lewis Cass, Toombs, Stephens, Ber- rien, Crawford, Foote of Mississippi, Benton, John Wentworth, General Shields, Judge Douglas, and Other Distinguished Ac- quaintances and Associates of Lincoln — Success in Business — Partnership with Herndon — More Study — Asahel Gridley — Judge Davis 311 CHAPTER XV. Friendly Relation of Judge Davis and Mr. Lincoln— Some Rem- iniscences — The Crumbaugh Brothers — An Estimate of Lincoln — Campaign of 1848 — Davis's Protest against Lincoln's Small Fees — Davis's Tribute to Mr. Lincoln — Judge Drummond's Es- timate — Some False Estimates— The Real Man as compared with his Associates— Reprimand to a Law Student 337 CONTENTS. 7 CHAPTER XVI. Pago. Nimmo Browne and Judge Douglas on the Mexican War and its Relation to Slavery— Douglas's Leadership— The Slave-trade: Its Introduction, Growth 3G3 CHAPTER XVII. Race Mixing— Pennsylvania Abolition Society— New York Manu- mission Society— Admission of Missouri-rBenjamin Lundy's "Genius of Universal Emancipation"— Lloyd Garrison's "Lib- erator"- American Anti-slavery Society— Liberty Party— Barn- burners— Republican Party— Lecompton Constitution— Rebel- lion-Emancipation Proclamation— Thirteenth Amendment 386 CHAPTER XVIII. Effect of Slavery on Labor, Learning, Religion, Society— Policy of Concession — Mr. Ivincoln's Conviction when elected as to his Leadership in putting Slavery down — A Never-to-be-Forgotten Interview— Whitney's Invention— Thirty Years of Clay's and Calhoun's Management of Affairs — Compromises that did not settle — Some of the Compromisers 406 CHAPTER XIX. Gold Discovery in California— Rushing Immigration— Slavery Ex- tension defeated — Anxiety of the Propaganda — Thirty-first Congress: Some of its Members — Mr. Seward— "States' Rights" Resolutions— Agitation of 1848-50 — Compromise of 1850— Furi- ous Discussions 420 CHAPTER XX. "Sandy Desert Plain"— Prevailing Belief that the Slavery Ques- tion was settled in 1850 — Archibald Dixon — Death of Clay — "Peace-keeper of the Nation" — Apathy and Indifference — Sup- pression of Free Speech — Political Cowardice — Campaign of 1852 — Franklin Pierce — Some Other Candidates — Election of Pierce — The Real Agitators — Plan to repeal the Missouri Cora- promise — Jefferson Davis— Caleb Cushing— The Propaganda in Full Control 451 g CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. Page. The Westward Movement— The Building of a New Party— Some of the Forming Elements — Estimate of Slave Holdings and Power — Repeal of the Missouri Compromise — Opinion of Joshua Giddings— The Kansas-Nebraska Bill— Denunciation of Doug- las — What forced the Repeal — Archibald Dixon — Atchison's Negotiation with Douglas — Atchison as a Border Leader- Douglas's Real Position 474 CHAPTER XXII. Douglas's Decision— "Squatter Sovereignty"— The Storm of Angry Denunciations — John Steven — An Estimate of Lincoln — Begin- ning of the Writer's Acquaintance with Davis, Gridley, and Lincoln — Introduction to Lincoln as an Abolitionist — A Friendly Discussion, in which Mr. Gridley assists — Early Im- pressions of Slavery — Mr. Lincoln's OlHce Habits and Pleasant Ways — The Darkest Days of our Republic 495 CHAPTER XXIII. The Elements of which the New Party was made — Douglas's Deli- cate, Exasperating Position — Anti-Nebraska Campaign of 1854 — Joint Debates — Peoria Argument — Election of Trumbull to United States Senate — Boy "Abolitionists" in Bloomington — Restraints on Mr. Lincoln — Work of Organizing the Republican Party in 1854 515 CHAPTER XXIV. The Louisiana Purchase — Compromise of 1820 — Compromise of 1850— Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854— Emigi-ant Aid Societies —Where ithe Kansas Emigrants were from — Slave Emigration from Missouri — The Atchison Plan — Congressional Investiga- tion of 1856 — Kansas Governors — Jefferson Davis in Control — Woodson as Acting Governor — The Courts — "The Squatter Sovereign" — "Candle Boxes" — Armed Missourians — Governor Reeder — Census of 1855 — Election following — Second Invasion ot Atchison — Certificates of Election under Dui-ess — Reeder's Humiliation at Washington— Subsequent Removal from Office — Work of the "Bogus T^egislature" — Judge Lecompte — Gov- ernor Shannon 539 CONTENTS. 9 CHAPTER XXV, Page. Mass Convention at Big Springs— Election of October 9, 1855— Free State Constitution- Election of 1S56 — Changing Attitude of Politicians — Committee of Investigation, known as the Howard Committee — The llight of Self-government — Sheriff Jones — Arrests and Indictments — Lane's Emigrants with Sharp's Rifles— "Jim Lane"— John Brown— The Real Situa- tion—The Nation appalled — Aroused from its Negligence 561 ■/> Abraham Lincoln AND THE MEN OF HIS TIME CHAPTER I. ABEAHAM LINCOLN was the son of a hardy Western pioneer. He was born and grew into strong, rugged manhood at a time when the vast, fertile, and im- mensely-productive basin of the middle and upper Missis- sippi was being settled and brought under the uses of a mighty westward migration. The vast areas of forest, mountain, and plain, and the widespreading waterways of the middle continent were well adapted to the purposes of the moving multitudes; and they could be numbered each year by hundreds of thousands. In one short generation they transformed the wilderness and the sea-like plains into one of the most beautiful and happiest habited regions of the earth — strong in every element that has made and built up our unequaled Western civilization. Abraham Lincoln grew and waxed strong alongside the best and bravest, the most industrious and hard-working men and boys of his time, whose principles were love of kindred, home, and country, that the story of the Savior was the faith of the pioneer, and that '"the fear of the 11 12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lord was the beginning of wisdom." They were men whose patient, contimions toil and hardships made them the strongest-bodied, most supple, and active-limbed body of men in all the land, whose intelligence and ancestry made them worthy successors of men who fought and died for their liberties. The father, Thomas Lincoln, as it will develop in our progress, was one of the rugged, able-bodied men who were the early settlers of Kentucky, son of Abraham Lincoln, the companion of Daniel Boone. The elder was massacred by the Indians, when Thomas escaped the fate of his father. Dis- tancing his pursuers, he summoned the neighbors to the defense of the cabin home of the family. He had cour- age, patience, and industry — those sterling qualities of man- hood — to form the foundation for the character and career of his remarkable son. He quietly toiled on in his duty, living the life on the frontier that became a necessity to reduce a continental wilderness to civilization. There is wisdom in the old legend that there is something buried in the earth, to give foundation and existence to whatever grows upon it. This should come to be better known as the truth concerning the training and ancestry of Mr. Lincoln. He was boy and man with his people, growing up and coming to early manhood with them, of them, among them, and, as he proved constant to the end, always one of them. The few great reformers of the world have done like- wise. Moses was the lifelong servant of his people, as well as servant and prophet of God. He became the chosen leader of his people, serving a long lifetime in trial, soli- tude, and preparation, that in his age and infirmity he might see the success of all his labors, and cast his vision over the land to the seas that would be the home of his emancipated people, which they held in prosperity until THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 13 their idolatries, persecutions, and cruelties surpassed those from which they had been rescued in Egypt. Philip of Macedon, founder of one of the greatest em- pires of antiquity, spent a lifetime of patient, laborious work in the camps and fields of his armies and peoples, training his invincible phalanx, building an undisputed world's kingdom, which perished in less time through the quarreling and disputes of his successors over the subdi- vision of the conquest of the daring, dissipated Alexander. Philip and his son had capacity and courage to build and conquer, but not the wisdom to perpetuate a nation of in- dependent men. Great Cfesar rose in a lifetime service with his cam- paigning legions to a more dominant, more puissant, reign- ing splendor, more triumphant autocracy, than the Mace- donian, for one reason: that he served and fought by the side of his Eomans in every country and on every field where any foe raised its standards against their all-con- quering armies, and that he had genius such as soldier never surpassed. Nevertheless his great empire rotted away in the greed and lust its wealth and arrogated powers had consolidated. It had no God but money and rank; and, without having advanced the rights of man or of hu- manity, as its supremacy enabled it to do, this world-power became an easy prey to the stronger Northmen, who rioted and feasted for a few short years on its aggregated luxuries and world-plundered riches. Savonarola — man, priest, and reformer — rendered a lifetime service, became a martyr in the devoted task of raising men out of the degraded, beastly plight of men in his day, succeeding the bloody, glutted reign of proud, pretentious, haughty, and imperial Rome, though dissolv- ing amid its tyrant dynasties, when debauched popes were as bad as the more besotted emperors had been. He lived, served, and died well, as one of the best and truest reform- 14 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. ers of all time, tliat man might be what his Creator de- signed him to be. This man of a corrupt age was, in all his labors, always one of and faithful among his people. Among the favored and fearless few there never came another like Martin Luther — God's hammering hero — who hammered loose the fetters of his people and the world from bigotry and persecution, on sounding anvils. In peril- ous discussions before, and in cruel councils, he vanquished and arrested their oppressions and bloody supremacy. In the majesty of truth and human rights, against their arro- gant pretensions and iniquitous cruelties, under the name and usurped authority of the Savior of men by priests, bishops, popes, and councils, were all swept before him by this master man, opening the first real pathway to free- dom which the world had known for more than a thousand years. The barons of England, who wrested "Magna Cliarta" from their weak and cowardly King John in 1215, were serving mankind far more and better than they realized at the time, compelling an obdurate despot, through his timidity and want of courage, to acknowledge and guarantee the rights of his subjects in part, thereby foimrling con- stitutional government for the English people for all time, or as long, at least, as the so-named "Anglo-Saxon peoples" are brave enough to fight for, sustain, and defend it. These barons, like all the feudal leaders of their time, could be leaders when they were with and part of their armed force or following. About the same period, Eobert Bruce patiently served his country, taught, trained, and gathered his clansmen for the most determined and desperate defense of their beloved Scotland, braving every peril and danger, mak- ing every river or lake or hill or plain or mountain crag or glen the home of liberty and independence or a Scotch- man's grave. No leader of ancient or modern times was THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 15 more among or one of his unconquerable people. Base and degraded indeed is the heart of any Scotchman who does not honor, as one of the bravest and strongest leaders in history, the Bruce, who, with William Wallace, made and established Scotland an independent nation, Hampden and Cromwell came to be the leaders of the English people against the tyrannical, usurping house of Stuart, to save the liberties of a great nation, won on so many fiercely-contested fields of war, through centuries of progress, to a higher, more perfect manhood. Hampden, bravest leader of them all, fell in victory among them. Crom- well forged onward with his God-fearing Puritans, winning victories, limiting and extinguishing despotisms and dy- nasties, fighting for the liberties enjoyed to-day, on every smoking battlefield on which they fought and prayed. A load of obloquy, distortions, and grievous falsehoods have been lifted from the name of England's fearless leader and protector. No fame was ever more honestly earned. He was true, sincere, and the earnest leader of his time and the cause of his people. The English-speaking peoples, the world over, have better government and better-pro- tected liberties because Old Noll shattered and dispersed the house of Stuart with the pikestaffs and blunderbusses of his Parliamentary army. William of Orange began, in heroic struggle, the de- liverance of his people from the clutching bondage of such Avolfish savages as Parma, Alva, and Philip, whose mem- ories are still reeking and groaning under the foul, out- crying load of tortured and slaughtered thousands, whose retributive punishment, with their iniquitous. Inquisition- laden nation, will not be complete until remorseless, dying Spain is as well forgotten as ancient Babylon. That the cruelties and savageries against the brave Netherlanders were among the most frightful and appall- ing in any real or pretended civilization needs barely to 16 ABE AH AM LINCOLN. he mentioned. That William bared his breast to the kill- ing storm, braved every danger, and died for his people, is as true. He was and is a leader whom God has made immortal. Men may emulate, but never surpass, the work of such a hero — one who has served his age so well that time Mali brighten the memory of a man as valorous in war as he was wise and steadfast in counsel or leadership. Among the few great reformers of all time we must not omit Saint Patrick, who, in a peaceful and bloodless triumph, led the Irish race — kings and kingdoms and the people — out of ignorance, superstition, and slavish distress that bound them down in barbarous clans and clannish wars, to the light and faith of Christ's gospel of peace. It was no less than a nation and a race of millions and suc- ceeding generations turned from darkness and destroying, pillaging wars, murders, and devastations, to the kingdom of our Savior, by his ceaseless labor in the lifetime of the devoted Christian, hero, leader. Since his time — the beginning of the sixth century — the Irish race have been the advance guard of civilization and liberty to every land under the sun, who, if they could not win freedom for their own native and dear old Ireland, have been God's faithful Christian heroes, to carry it and die for it with the struggling and oppressed of every clime. Christianity, under the lead of this daring man, turned this great race from their degradation and half-savage condition to a nation of scholars, humorists, statesmen, sol- diers, and heroes, who are seldom equaled and never sur- passed. Under the three great leaders, the triple heroes of Brit- ain — Saint Patrick, John Knox, and Oliver Cromwell — and their successors, have grown the strongest and most predominant force of men whom the world has ever known; further, blended and commingled with a strong admixture THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 17 of the sturdy Germanic, have produced the American, the strongest individual character and manhood in existence, — all of whom, if true to their lineage and exalted conditions, if their cursed drink-habits were abated, would carry, not a plundering, but a pure. Christian civilization all over the world. There is an allegory, with many terminating distinc- tions, as to the elementary character of the English, Scotch, Irish, and American. One is that a person asked, severally, these to undertake a hazardous enterprise. The English- man said he would if he could adjust it under "Magna Charta" and the precedents of English law and literature. The Scotchman said "he would meditate over it in prayer and thanksgiving when it approved itself to his mind." The Irishman said, "By the faith of Saint Patrick, Oi 'm ready, sor;" and the American, "Sir, I will undertake it if it will pay on these terms: twenty-five per cent in ad- vance, and the balance in quarterly installments." There remains for our thoughful consideration the most capable, zealous, and devout spiritual reformer of the Chris- tian Church and the greatest founder of a world-wide Chris- tianity since Saint Paul — John Wesley — whose life and labors for sixty of the years of the eighteenth century laid the foundation for the most powerful body of spiritual, believing, and faith-proving Christians in the world — a de- nomination growing out of a little sect of reformers in a dull and lifeless State establishment to a world-extending activity, with more millions now than the England of Wes- ley's day. He became an accredited apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw the great English Church, that had so grandly risen above Eomanism, falling away and perishing, without spirituality or belief in the absolute necessity of regeneration, another victim of postures, precedents, and 2 18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. formulas. He obliterated self, and in a tireless itinerary, work, and devotion of more than a half century, proclaimed anew the saving faith of Christ's gospel over two continents. He had wrought out a religious revolution, and founded one of the world's strongest bodies of God-loving people, while content in the belief that he was saving the Church of his people and their ancestors from listless and God- less decay. He did even that which no other man had done or seemed able to do: revived and, for the time, saved the Establishment. He preached and pleaded and entreated men to turn from their sins in every city, town, highway, mine, factory, lane, and byway he could reach, leading them to repent- ance and bettered lives in multitudes beyond number, full of the conviction that in every human face he saw a soul to save. He had the grace, the zeal, the untiring energy, and the power of not only one, but many of the first of the faith, who worked and served with the Master himself as he reasoned and taught in Judea. He had the marvel- ous patience and directness of speech of Saint Matthew, whose record grows more precious as centuries roll on. He had the polish and accuracy of Saint Luke, the scholar, who told the gospel story more gracefully than Saint Paul him- self — the most learned, convincing, logical, and eloquent of all the Twelve. He had the fire and thunder of good, old Peter, and often brought three thousand, or more, to the faith in a single sermon, so plaintive and eloquent that strong men and women shouted all about him in thousands. He had the mellowed mind, the power of imagery, and the tender heart of the disciple "whom Jesus loved."" He was, all in all, a man, leader, and reformer, without money or even the power to call his great and increasing body of followers a Church or separate organization, who had done more for mankind than all the kings of England lumped THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 19 together, with Croesus and all the world's millionaires since thrown in as make-weight. As we review the lives and character of such men as Wesley and Lincoln, we can well understand the high dis- tinction and duty that was open to the youth whom Christ admonished, "Go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me." When the American colonies were about founding a new nation and establishing a new era among the Govern- ments and powers of the earth, almost eighteen dull, leaden centuries had passed since the truth concerning man's ex- istence had been promulgated; when Calvary succeeded Sinai; when sacrifice beyond human conception or under- standing opened the way, lighted the world with a belief, a gospel founded on God's eternal truth, with glad tidings of peace on earth and good will to men; that in govern- ment, as in all the relations of life, men must cease to do evil, and learn righteousness, justice, forgiveness, mercy, peace, and the absolute equality of all men before God. Discovery after discovery had found new continents, and had revealed almost endless new elements and resources in nature, far surpassing the Avildest dreams of antiquity, when the fabled ''Atlantis" was far out of reach of their clumsy coast-line navigation, when a fiattened-plane sur- face of the earth, an endless westward ocean, and a revolv- ing sun marked the limits of human philosophy. Gunpowder had ameliorated the barbarities of war. Sci- ence came to the relief of the weak and oppressed when a robber baron and predatory king, or lesser villains, with their marauding clans and men-at-arms, on their incur- sions, prudently halted outside the zone of the powder-mill. Printing had made a new world of intelligence. The silent, movable types could preserve and communicate the best, the brightest, and the mightiest thought to the remotest 20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. recesses, into the ignorance, darkness, and iniquity that filled men's lives, but which fled and dissipated before these new agencies like the mists and the gloom in the belts of the noonday sun. Luther had overturned a priestly, tyrannical hierarchy; the angered, broken fragments were cooling quietly down after the furious sundering of beliefs; policies and social order had wonderfully changed, and men were readjusting themselves as much as could be to the very much changed condition of things in all the business and conduct of life. The hard, unyielding logic of his reform had turned na- tions from a blind superstition under the name of religion to free, independent, thoughtful beliefs. Priestcraft, as a governing, controlling, and punishing power, had been overthrown; and the minds of men could turn peacefully to their Maker and the pursuit of their welfare and happi- ness when despotic kings were as completely overthrown as the priests had been in their campaigns and battles with Luther. In time Cromwell overthrew and destroyed a house of these despotic little men, calling themselves kings by Di- vine right, and arrogating under this authority the disposal of the lives and fortunes of their fellow-men. They were, perhaps, the worst of their kind and time, because they were endeavoring to throttle and destroy the rights, privi- leges, and liberties of an intelligent, almost a free people — the leading nation of the earth at the time — on its high road to progress and a bettered condition for all its people. It is in analysis, dissection, cutting away false ideas, and by comparison, that we are able to estimate and under- stand the acts of men, and follow the course of events. These leaders — fair representatives of the best and most noted in history — have from necessity passed in hurried review. More might be added; but we would only be giv- ing the record and work of other men with the same ideas THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 21 and purposes. We are to study men, government, and the conduct of public affairs under changed conditions — a new continent, where men are devoted to and will sustain the principle that all Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. In time multitudes in full accord on the subject, in vast numbers, considering the occasion, the cause, and the op- portunities, sought and found homes on the American Continent, free and unbound by the priestcraft and the monarchical, labor-robbing, man-killing codes of Europe, from which they had fled, hoping and praying for a com- plete deliverance from the systems that had despoiled and degraded men for centuries, and from which, although be- set by all manner of difficulties, and their habitations still a wilderness, they continually hoped for the wisdom and strength that would make them a free and independent people. They saw in their early beginnings the light and promise of a better civilization. They were hungering and thirsting for the enjoyment of the liberties they had so diligently earned. Fast-hurrying events brought the crisis that made them, for the time, the defenders of human rights. It was a trying and desperate struggle, marking it as a distinct epoch in the path of man's development. Victory, after seven years of wasting war, brought an un- kinged nation to a new world, a new era, and renewed hopes to mankind. Britain had grown to be, at the time, the great sea power of the world, with as greedy desire for domination and plunder, under the name of an enlightened nation, extending its ideas, influences, and commerce over the earth, as it has done, and as it professes in these later days, with all of them prospered and maintained. They are propa- gating and enforcing all these ideas against mankind with all their power and strength. Their plans of government have as full possession of their rulers, soldiers, statesmen. 22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and commercial people for trade supremacy as they had under the Georges. The well-formed purpose then, as now, is to trade with and govern all the weak peoples of the earth indiscriminately, sequestrate the rights and prop- erty possessions of every country or kingdom which their armies or navies can reach and subdue. In time, following the "divine" Stuarts, some royal exiles, under the wings of the kingdoms, dukedoms, and other aristocracies of the Continent of Europe, there grew another smaller line of kings and princes for the Island Kingdom. The well-fed house of Hanover crossed over, came to and held the ancestral halls, the castles, manors, and crown lands, and succeeded to the prerogatives, pre- tensions and all, of the removed dynasty of Stuart. In this line of foreign bred and born aristocrats came George HE, king of Britain, king of Ireland, king of the American Colonies, the dull and stupid helper of freedom and free government for the American Continent, unwill- ingly enough, and disastrously beyond European thought or expectation. The avaricious and rapacious taxes of his reign and administration drove the overtaxed, unrepre- sented subjects into rebellion, and succeeding, therefore ripening into revolution; for they did succeed and establish our great Eepublic. In our limited understanding, God's movements are slow and deliberate. The footprints of great and deter- mining events are often measured by centuries, as often mysterious, deeply laid, and far beyond our intelligence. Nevertheless they are certain, positive, and sure to come, as much so as that atom unites with atom in every growth or development, or that suns and systems move in rapidity, precision, and power farther above our comprehension than we are to that of the smallest unseen existence about us. It was a long period of trial, with patient and hopeful wait- ing, for the beginnings and grov/th of a nation, from Abra- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 23 ham, through the captivity and bondage, to Moses and the deliverance, and through continuing struggles, con- tests, defeats, victories, and final achievement to David, when God fulfilled his promise to Abraham, and firmly estab- lished the favored and povs^erful Hebrew nation of antiquity. Then again it was a deeper, more mysterious, more uncer- tain lapse of centuries, through superstitious idolatries and moldering away of many godless nations, from David the founder and Solomon's blazing splendor to a provincial Roman State at Calvary. It was a darker, more deeply ignorant lapse of ages that followed as the Asiatic nations and the chosen Hebrew peoples were scattering, dissolving, crumbling away from nations and strong subdivisions to roving tribes of the forests, mountains, and deserts, and forced fleeing emi- grants to Western Europe. Nevertheless the good lay deep in the breaking up and dispersions of those indolent Asiatics, yet the best-informed people then living. The Eoman and other strong Western empires and na- tions were builded and building when the story of Calvary, the gospel of a perfect manhood, was announced, after long and almost hopeless disappointments, cruelties, and delays. Nevertheless it became the fundamental belief of those mighty moving Western peoples. Thus, in the scattered movement for its beginning, Christ's gospel became the all- important propaganda of millions who advanced by littles, through long, weary periods, or, sometimes, in sudden, over- whelming triumph, like that of Luther, Cromwell, Calvin, Knox, Wesley, and Whitefield, to higher planes of exist- ence, until it has girdled the earth. In 1776 the American Colonies had exhausted all honor- able means to avoid the threatened conflict with Britain. All reasonable plans and propositions suggested for the settlement of differences between them had been tried on the part of the Colonies, with the invariable result that 24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, they were not recognized as a party in any proposed set- tlement by any British ministry; and their demand for representation in any Government by which they were to be taxed was as promptly rejected as it was proposed, gen- erally without consideration. The Colonies were strong, and were growing. They were full of confidence in their just and righteous cause. They rightly determined to resist taxation without their con- sent; for they fully understood that, if the power to tax them ^vithout their consent was conceded, although the tax might be trivial and inconsequential to begin with, the power so conceded could be, and it surely and certainly would be, used to reduce them to the lowest conditions of existence. It would be a state of abject poverty and want, such as that to which Britain had even at that early period reduced and beggared some of the most thriving parts of Ireland. The Emerald Isle is one of the most beautiful, fertile, and productive islands of the sea; yet so much and so long overtaxed and rackrented has it been for centuries that its thrifty, industrious people have found relief from starva- tion only by emigration in multitudes. No land is so in- hospitable as his own rich gem of the ocean to the Irish- man, who has found home and prosperity in every land and clime, where his skill and labor always improve and help to build; so much in our favored country, that we are not only a Greater Britain, but a Greater Ireland. In the territorial distribution sure to follow the next general contest and world's upheaval, like that of the ]^a- poleonic wars, when we doubled our landed area, and ex- panded to the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, we should be ready — not as a war power, but a peace-making one — ^to enforce our decisions, to declare that the time has come for the removal of every foreign power from the American Continents, and to offer our good offices and THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 25 friendly intervention for the readjustment and settlement of disputes between the broken-down land-hunters of Europe. It should be settled, once for all, that lordly land-grabbing footpads must quit our Western world. The present threatened upheaval, dismemberment, and realignment of nations is as sure to come as that Asia and Europe have been torn into territorial fragments, and redivided on battlefields by almost every generation "for fort}'' centuries." It is coming now, as the inevitable con- sequence of armed millions subsisting upon and impover- ishing the producing classes, who have long passed the lim- its of comfortable endurance, and are now perishing by the hundred millions from diseases, pestilences, and fam- ines, wasting away, sometimes in uncounted myriads, like those of Ireland and India, overworked, overtaxed, under- fed, and dying in want. When these land-robbing, plundering, sea-roving em- presses, emperors, kings, sultans, pashas, presidents, smaller rulers, and adventurers have hammered and pounded their armies to fragments against each other — as they are sure to do — and have become tractable, because powerless, it will become our right, duty, and prerogative to declare our dominant power in the Western world. In the settlement that will come after defeat and ex- haustion, a general treaty of peace can be concluded be- tween the enlightened Christian nations of the world, which should be held in Washington City. Our interest must be under the control and conduct of an able-minded, as it will be an able-bodied, thoroughly American administration, that will see to it that all the nations and peoples of these Continents shall be protected in the exercise of self-gov- ernment, with plans and policies adapted to their condi- tions and the rights of men. In such a settlement it will be eminently proper and no more than long-delayed justice that the United States 26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. shall acquire and have all the territory known as British Columbia, from Lake Superior to Behring Sea. This vast, resourceful region was adventured from our approaching, very natural expansion from 1840 to 1850, when the Re- public was under the spell of the slave propaganda. As Britain was one of the chief beneficiaries of that horrid system and the war for its supremacy, it becomes part of any just accounting between us that this region, so neces- sary for our progress and legitimate expansion, should be given to us, and that Ireland, in consideration of the well- known aversion of the Irish people to British rule, should become one of the States of the American Union. This would be no more than fair dealing between us, and less than Britain would exact from us if our situations were reversed. It would be a welcome settlement to the Irish people, who would achieve their long-desired hope of a free, emancipated Ireland. It would bring us less than we are entitled to for the destruction of our commerce, the vandalism of burning our Capitol in 1812, and the greatest naval conflagration and destruction ever known, when our ships and shipping were sunk, burned by hundreds, and swept from the face of the seas by English men, guns, ships, and money, under control and contrivance of juggling Brit- ish administrations. These territorial concessions to us would not be fair remuneration for the full fifteen hundred millions' value of our sunken ships and obliterated commerce ; but it would prove a wholesome lesson to monarchs and greedy-minded people, and it might pave the way and make a starting- point for the proposed "alliance of all English-speaking peoples." To the American people it is a duty, like the settlement of an account long past due. It would give us territory necessary for our progress and development, settle the strained conditions in Ireland, and be the most we could expect as moral compensation and punitive retribu- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 27 tion for our losses in war and the attempted dismember- ment of our Eepublic in the war for the Union against Brit- ain and the Confederate States. After long suffering, tedious waiting, and with only partial advances toward free government in Western Europe, but in the fullness of time in 1776, another era of progress was coming to a more Western people. The accumulating effects of the noble work of Luther, Crom- well, and thousands of their associates and followers, had loosened the grasp of tyrants throughout the civilized world; but the Lion's clutch was still firm, and his fangs and claws were deep in the heart of the American Colonies. They had prepared for the struggle as best they could, and were as ready for it as they could ever expect to be. Many of them, by their pioneer training and experience, had become the best of soldiers for the desultory skirmishing campaigns in which the war was to be conducted. These people, with their ancestors of not more than fwo generations at farthest, had been driven from the do- minions of the despots, great and small, of Western Europe, because of their religious or political beliefs. Many of them had been sent and brought to our shores with the hope that they would perish from hunger or the scalping- knife of the savage Indians in the wilderness. They had, unexpectedly to many, survived and become so prosperous that they were to be plundered and taxed by the tyrants they had escaped from as their subjects near and about them. These straggling communities — colonies — stretching along the Atlantic coast for about one thousand miles — scarcely more — with the savage Indians on one side of them all the way, and the sea and British fleets along the entire coast-line on the other side all the way, with less than three millions of people, revolted, and defied in war the greatest sea power of the earth at the time, and in every other way one of the most powerful nations in existence. 28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. They had the courage and were ready to fight. After their revolt they were compelled either to do that or sub- mit to a miore galling restriction, supervision, taxation, and punishment, because they had complained and resisted the authority of the Hanoverian king of Britain to tax them without representation, besides other grievances. It is the highest tribute to the courage, honor, and pa- triotism of the heroes of the Kevolution that, fully aware and cognizant of all their surroundings, knowing well their weakness and their helpless condition, compared with the powerful nation with which they had to contend, and the difficulties and dangers that beset them on every hand, they welcomed death a thousand times rather than to live under the bondage of plundering kings, whether of Hanover or the equally greedy lines of Stuart, Tudor, or Plantagenet. The time was at hand, April, 1775. The clock in the Old South Church, of Boston, struck the hour for the call to arms that would herald the rising of one of the greatest nations of all time on the field of Lexington before another sun went down. The conflict was upon them. The gather- ing storm had burst, and darker days than those on Marston Moor and jSTaseby were threatening and hanging over them; but not a man faltered; and the Colonies mustered for the unequal conflict from the pine-clad Green Mountains to the savannas of Georgia. The Colonies were scattered, we said, along a rough and rugged coast, which seemed their danger and incon- venience in the beginning for Avant of communication and co-operation; but this became much of their salvation as the strugs:le raged and lasted through so manv tedious vears. They gathered for war as they had done for their industrial pursuits, with whatever arms, defensible weapons, or equip- ments they had ; and, having little for display or the means to keep up the forms of military service, every man knew the capacity and strength of the arms he had, and, better. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 29 had the knowledge himself how best to use them, and had reached the settled determination to win or die. Thus in the cold springtime of 1775 these persecuted, wilderness- driven patriots were on the field for war; but who and where was the leader, another Bruce or Cromwell, who could lead his people and save them and their liberties? God is always ready, and fulfills his promises to the nations that remember him as he does to the men who wait on and faithfully serve him, A few unexpected catastro- phes — such as the tea destruction in Boston harbor; an affronted British officer in the streets of Boston; the fiery, impassioned appeal of Patrick Henry in the Virginia House of Burgesses, that swept the Eoyalists before him as the lashing storms do the fishing-boats and yawls off Cape Hat- teras — incidents such as these, and the already separated Carolinians fired the tinder, opened the way for the open- ing and declaration of the most notable conflict of modern times, because of the vital issues involved — the first after Luther and Cromwell when free, stalwart men were to con- tend with kings and hierarchies for their lives, civil and religious liberty, and the right to govern themselves. Of all such contests against tjTanny and oppression, that of the Colonies against powerful Britain appeared the most hopeless in the beginning. It was considered preposterous that a few half-settled Colonies, on a long shore-line, with- out organization of forces, without a navy of any kind, wathout plans or forms for military service of any kind, good or bad, for war or defense, save the rugged determi- nation to resist the encroachment of the king and his armed forces as they did those of the savage Indians on their Western borders, had ventured a revolt. They had few guns, arms, or equipments of any kind. Of those they had, about all of them were those which the Colonial volunteers had been supplied with in the campaigns against the French and Indians not long before. They had poor means for 30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. army transportation. Their future equipment, like their success, depended on how many of the enemy they would be able to capture and disarm. They had few vessels or water craft for coast-line and river commerce, none except the fishing-boats of the shore towns. Their principal com- merce was with the mother country, all of which was car- ried in foreign ships. They had no means for the gather- ing, mustering, and co-operation of large bodies of troops, and none for supplying, equipping, and subsisting them if they had been assembled. In the beginning their entire resources for the purpose would not have equipped an army of ten thousand in the poor, half-supplied manner in which their first recruits took the field. Without being supplied with the ordinary arms and means of resistance common at the time, it seemed pre- sumptuous hardihood indeed for a few weak, scattered Colonies to contend against one of the most powerful na- tions of the earth, with well equipped and supplied armies for land service and a navy more than double the power and strength of any other nation then in existence. In the ordinary course of wars and contentions, it was not considered a possibility for the Colonists to succeed. The power to be contended with was so strong in men and arms and the experience of its armed forces, and so well fitted and prepared for war, which was a continuous occupation of a large part of its bravest, hardiest men, that, without something more than human help and interposition, the destruction of the Colonies appeared certain, and that their once happy, free, and independent homes would be a deso- lation, to mark the end of the rebels against the rule of the most Christian king and defender of the faith of Britain. When the case was made up, and every impartial author- ity had delivered judgment, the cause of the Colonies was considered a hopeless, daring venture, rather than a deter- mined purpose of those hardy pioneers and refugees to THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 31 establish their independence, when nothing but submission after severe punishment was expected. The precedents in history were against them: the Greek and Slavic peoples had fallen by thousands in many unsuccessful struggles against despots for liberty; and Poland, brave Poland, then lay bleeding, dismembered, blotted from the map of Europe by crowned murderers, who turned its beautiful cities into charnel-houses. But God, the Euler "who holds all things in the hol- low of his hand" — or Providence, as we call the Majestic Creator of worlds and suns and systems — was preparing men for his work when, by his will, this same British nation, through its Dinwiddies, Fairfaxes, and Braddocks, gov- ernors, generals, and soldiers, in numberless undertakings, hard service, and campaigns against their French and In- dian enemies, and in civil as well as military preparation, raised up the man to lead, trained, developed, and fitted him in severe service and hardships in five years' campaign- ing, preparing his body and mind on the field and in council and administration, making him the man for the time. As he developed, he became the disciplined leader who was to lead these same weak, helpless Colonies to the most re- noMTied victory in all time in behalf of the rights and free- dom of his fellow-men to the founding of the great Amer- ican Republic. What men could not accomplish or comprehend, the wise Father did so wisely and so well that tyrants, aristocracies, and class-making plutocrats will hesitate for centuries to destroy a nation that took so much of suffering, sacrifice, and death to establish. Under his leadership, Washington and his men made the weak, persecuted, conscience-driven pioneers the founders of the freest and best Government that the world has ever known. It will last just as long as we are true to Him who planted it in the blood and long- suffering of his heroes. 32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "Washington was a genius adapted to the great ■work. He became a great leader, not through great victories or triumphal campaigns, but by careful attention to his duty and the rare sense of how to do it best, beginning in his younger manhood. Through his tutelage and development, farming, surveying, pioneering, and through his service, instruction, and campaigning with his British employers, associates, and commanders, his habits never changed. In all he passed through a service of disasters, defeats, and disappointments, fitting him as no other work or experience could have done, for the patient endurance which was ab- solutely necessary throughout his life and leadership. He conducted his campaigns through all kinds of besetments, without achieving any decisive or remarkable victory, until his closing and almost concluding one, which resulted in the defeat and capture of Lord Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown and the subsequent driving of every hostile force from the Colonies. He won his final victory and success in long years of patient waiting, but no less in terribly earnest work and campaigning, whenever it was possible for him to strike or to retreat. Such persevering devotion and service had never been considered feasible or possible. His harassing, continuous attacking, never giving up, always ready for assaulting or retreating campaigns and plan of war, led all the British armies to such marching, pursuing, defending, and never- knowing-what-to-do sort of condition, that they were in constant fatigue, worn out. disappointed, disheartened, un- certain, and eventually dissipated and defeated by the sleep- less, ever-moving, always-fighting Continentals under Wash- ington, who fought the fine, well-equipped armies so con- stantly, from every nook and corner and vantage position, from all sides, so persistently and incessantly that their strong, best fitted-out armies melted away in fruitless ef- forts and campaigns against patriots fighting for their ex- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 33 istence, whom they could neither conquer nor capture. These British armies, with their mercenary auxiliaries, fought the revolting Colonies for seven long years, until Clinton, Hudson, Lowe, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis, with defeated or captured armies, left Washington and his Conti- nentals victors of a new world, where the consent of the governed would be the foundation of law. We have made our review of men and leaders and the causes in which they served, contended for, and in which many of them fell — the reforms and revolutions which they anticipated and struggled for, and which the best and strongest of them accomplished — that we may place these great leaders of men, their causes, beliefs, and movements, all of them in combination, and, as we can, each one's work and thought in particular, alongside of our own world leader. This great leader and prophet, the man of his time, was Abraham Lincoln, whom God, in his wisdom, raised up among the people, that he might save our be- loved country in patience and sacrifice, purge and cleanse it from the iniquity of a slavery that made the black man a brute and the white man the competitor of the black man's stolen labor, under which the white man often had much less to subsist upon than the well-fed slave, to em- phasize the degradation of this curse that fell so heavy on toiling millions. God proved him constant and true to the end, as well as powerful and wise in his high command, through the fiery trial that made him a sacrifice like Moses, Savonarola, and William of Orange, when his great work was done. It is by incisive investigation, contrast, and comparison that we gather notions of men, their objects, principles, and purposes, and the measures which they contend for and hazard every danger to accomplish. The world's lead- ers whom we have brought forth for consideration were all. in their time, self-sustained, able, strong, and powerful 3 34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. men, capable, daring, and fearless in the work of their lives. They were not all alike — far from it! — ^yet there were strong, forcible, and similar lines of character, which were distinct and clear in the lives of all of them. All of them were strong, clear-minded men. All of them believed in their people, lived plain and simple lives with and among them, so always until they came to and possessed their leadership. Not all were faithful in this to the end; but it came that all who forsook their people, and were faith- less, or those who exalted themselves, waned, or lost their leadership, and their kingdoms or nations passed into other hands, like those of Philip, Alexander, and Csesar; but those who remained faithful, who served their cause and people triumphantly to the end — like Moses, Savonarola, Luther, Bruce, Hampden, Cromwell, and Washington, were honored leaders throughout their lives. It is by investigation and comparison with men and leaders like these that we are to establish Lincoln in his appropriate place among his own — our people — and in his- tory. He was not superior in mind or strength or cause or achievement to all, or in every element and feature to any of these world leaders among men. He liberated more black bondmen than the entire Hebrew race at the time of their deliverance, and from a more grinding bondage, and emanci- pated also our more than thirty millions of white people from its cursed effect at the time. His work consolidated, re- strengthened, and advanced to almost certain power a greater, stronger, and better nation than Eome before there was a sign or suspicion of its decay. He achieved greater success in a more desperately-con- tested struggle, and brought into effectual existence a greater reform, than Cromwell. In patience, longsuffering, and faithful service to the end he can well be compared with Washington. He fought for all that Washington did, and waited, served, and prayed for all that his great soul de- THE MEN OE HIS TIME. 35 sired. He contended and pleaded and directed among thirty-two millions against Washington's three or four mil- lions. Washington fought England directly. Lincoln fought the slave hierarchy and England indirectly. He was not greater than Washington — mortal man never has been — but the parallels draw between them so close and regularly that we rejoice in the truth that, under the Wise Euler of all, and with a free people, one of them founded and the other saved our oSTation. Lincoln fought and contended for man's spiritual free- dom and independence, as well as that he should be free in civil and domestic affairs; and though not comparable, in many ways, to Savonarola and Luther as the world's load- ers in behalf of religious liberty, yet in their noble and never-to-be-forgotten service in behalf of our race they did not achieve any victory for man's spiritual freedom that Lincoln's great work did not affirm, more surely establish, and more generally disseminate. So, without unsupported pretension, and in the full light of persevering research, measured by the highest standards and parallels which have weighed and estimated the world's greatest and most gifted leaders and their causes, beliefs, and achievements, Lincoln stands a worthy successor of Washington, one of the world's hero leaders, and the man of his time. CHAPTER 11. II y ixTLE ABE," son of Thomas Lincoln, of Kentucky, I the farmer boy, the thoughtful, studious lad who came to the heavy forests lands of Southern Indiana from his Kentucky home when a child, grew to manhood, where severe, honest toil was everybody's continuing occupation. In his sixteenth year he had reached a development that made him equal in strength, general usefulness, and ca- pacity' to full-grown men. He had menial equipment, in- quisitiveness, and ingenuity so distinct in his character and make-up, that he grew to be considered a man in his boy- hood, and long before he reached mature age he became known as 'Tionest Old Abe." This epithet was a tribute to his integrity, remarkable insight, and knowledge of cur- rent events, rather than to his years. He grew up through the toil and hardships, common and usual to the people about him, which were necessary in changing the forest wilderness and the vast alluvial plains into tilled farms, with comfortable homes and habi- tations. In his progress he was, first of all, a persevering student of events and men; and then of books; of the latter he read all within his reach which he could either buy or borrow. In the world's work after farming, lumbering, and boating, and his little country store, he came to be a surveyor, a tireless and diligent law student, lawyer, in which relation he became and held the place of the people's counselor; rising steadily he became political disputant with the most learned "doctors of the law:" Commoner in which the people ''all took to him," and leader, an exalted 36 THE MES OF HIS TIME. 37 position where he had no successful contestant Xot through seeking oflSce or distinction, but because of Ms knowledge of men and affairs, and the laws of the land, his proved integrity of character, his masterly and com- manding ability in every encounter or emergency, and his constant, unflinching adherence to the cause of the rights of his fellow-men, he rose in worthy and permanent dis- tinction to be his people's adviser and leader. President, elected and re-elected; but, most of all, man and leader of his people, a prophet, whom God touched with the fire of a new inspiration- He was one into whose soul was burned the hope that, like Moses, who was God's messenger and avenger to de- liver his people from grasping and cruel bondage, he was to be the leader of a greater people from a wokc and more galling bondage, one that brutalized the black man, who, body and being, became the booty and plunder of pirate, buccaneer, and slave-trader. This system and sin of slavery debased and dishonored the citizen of any part of the Xa- tion, who honestly earned his living, and for whose liberty, haopiness, and c-omfort the Xation was founded. Every- where the toiler, laborer, and artisan were confronted with the competition of the black man's stolen labor. An aris- tocracy was founded on the ownerehip of stolen men and women, and the pretentious arrogance and studied insolence of a petty prince or a titled aristocrat were not worse than the offensive intolerance of most of these traffickers in human flesh. The labor of four million slaves whose every day's toil produced vast quantities of materials, such as com, sugar. rice, and cotton, were aU taken from the producers without remuneration, and placed in our own and the world's market in direct competition with our own products, making us the competitors of stolen and unpaid labor. Citizen and Xation were tied down under the dominion and curse of 38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. slavery, righteously judged and written, centuries ago, as "the foundation and sum of all villainies." Without an overdrawn comparison, but in reason, in a plain and sensible consideration of the most important events, upheavals, and progress in the history of peoples and their leaders, it seems as true and certain that Lincoln was touched with the fire of God's Spirit, and made a leader of our people, as that we have and acknowledge God in history. Thus as a beginning, continuing, and prevailing consideration, Lincoln became the chosen leader of a people who loved liberty and hated oppression. They followed him as faithfully, and served him and the Great Master as well as the favored Hebrew people did Moses, or the fearless Germanic race did Luther in the mighty contest for relig- ious liberty. John Knox, with his devoted covenanters in Scotland, and Cromwell, with his conscientious warrior puri- tans in England, were great leaders for the overthrow of an oppressive dynasty, and Washington rose to uncontested leadership in one of the most memorable conflicts the world has ever known. Our subject is Lincoln and the men of his time. The name brings bright, pleasing memories, as the thought of the hurrying, disputing, assembling throngs brings back the fiery, fateful events, though carrying us into and through such woeful, destructive conflict as seldom rages on this war-laden earth. Though these reflections often bring sad and movirnful reviews, they affirm the bettered, rebuilded Nation, purged of grosser wrongs and bloody sectional di- visions. Patriotism to-day is as deep and sincere as our country, its States and jurisdictions, are wide-spreading and satisfying. Lincoln's name is so pleasantly and delightfully interwoven with surprising history, and so distinct as one of the greatest leaders and reformers of all time, that it vnll brighten as the ISTation waxes strong through lengthen- ing periods of peaceful progress. His name, so dear and THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 39 suggestive of liberty, justice, and freedom, will be remem- bered among the five or six of those whose work marks world-achieving epochs in human history. It was a high privilege and a lasting honor, though a severe and exacting service, to have been one of those who marched forward to more honest methods of civil adminis- tration and more consideration for the rights and welfare of the weaker and more helpless, and to have followed the bold and fearless spirit of Lincoln through trials, tribula- tion, bitter anguish, and battle to final victory. In memory it is satisfying to have looked into his great and beautiful soul, and to have been in its presence and under his happy and exalting influence, and to have been, for a time, as near as souls in kindred feeling and purpose can be, a part of his noble nature and its purposes. The stor}^ of the life and work of Abraham Lincoln and the men with and about him forms one of the most pleas- ing and entertaining subjects, and at the same time it covers one of the most exciting, heroic, and tragic periods of our own and of all the world's history. In it we follow the apparently melancholy, certainly the serious and thoughtful man, one of the brightest creations of intellec- tual genius whose talents were so brilliant, impressive, and predominant, that the light from them and the integrity of his character and purposes are brighter, clearer, better understood, and approved as the years roll on. After all, he was one of the people, a plain common man, a citizen re- spected and beloved of his friends and neighbors, the weakest man's truest friend in every trial and perplexity. He was courageous, capable, and fearless, so well-rounded out in power, strength, sympathy, and readiness for action, so keenly alive and active in the help of his fellow-men and their jeopardized liberties, so singly devoted to his country and people, that the world has not seen another like him. Men have lived, served, and suffered and died for land and 40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. liberty, but who of them all was so distinctly one of the plain common people, so honestly and sincerely devoted to their prosperity and welfare, who left unquestionable proof of it in such wealth of human sympathy and goodness that remains a heritage beyond value to the increasing millions who make this land of liberty their home? Men have been able in counsel, wise in judgment, successful in war, far- seeing and competent in administration; but who of the many who have reached some kind of success, or the few who were concerned for the rights of their fellow-men, has left the memory of so unselfish a life, so entirely devoted to them and the integrity and entirety of the saved Nation that so well protected them? Who, and when, and where did man, leader or ruler, before or since, use such mighty re- sources with such tremendous power and effect, so wisely, so Avell, and so satisfactorily for his people and Nation? His truly great and masterly work of liberating a race of men from bondage and the salvation of his beloved country stands alone. The great Master doubtless will, in the fullness of time, when his faithful followers are ready, raise up an- other leader, for another advance of mankind out of the pits of oppressors and taskmasters; but until then the story of Lincoln's life and leadership, truly told, is the best hope of men now, as it was the anchor of safety for his race and country when he lived and led. It is ours to get ready and be ready, strengthen the foundations of our system of Gov- ernment, to inquire as Lincoln did and work as he did, taking the side of the people that are under the worst form of oppression. If we do, we will be ready as he was for a lifetime's labor, and we will soon be ready for another advance; for the oppressors are not all dead, nor the people all free. He was the avowed and sincere friend of the people, to whom he belonged. He was pleased to be known and called one of them; in his lifetime service for the poor and op- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 41 pressed, he desired no higher distinction than to he so known. He was, of course, the friend of the black man, and led our Nation and people in a death-struggle for his freedom, and through it, when he well knew that the highest distinction that wealth and power could give was open to him if he would "take time," if he would only become lukewarm and faithless, and abandon their cause. He was no less the friend of the poor, weak, and oppressed — of every race, color, creed, or condition, and was always against wealth, class, power, or prerogative, in their oppressions, assaults, and encroachments on the earnings, rights, privileges, and liber- ties of men. Next to his devotion to his Maker, his service in their behalf was his most sacred duty. His faith in the common people was strong, abiding, and unbounded. He fully believed tbat in spite of thwarted and broken hopes, delayed and unfulfilled expectations, de- lusions, deceits, and follies, they would finally master and decide all questions justly and righteously. One of his most apt and forcible maxims was, "You may fool all of the people part of the time; you may fool part of the people all of the time; but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." It will be one of the principal objects of this work to help place Mr. Lincoln in his true relation to the human race, commoner or leader of the plain common people, as he liked to be known ; reformer, fearless leader, that defied every power on earth when convinced that he was right; and the counselor, helper, and defender of the poor and lowly under all circumstances. There have been as many as twenty entertaining books, lives or histories of Mr. Lincoln; hun- dreds of pamphlets, essays, personal recollections, opinions, letters, and valuable contributions of various kinds, pub- lished and written concerning him. All of them are differ- ent, many of them widely so; and they differ, as the writers themselves, in capacity, knowledge of the man, or want of it and opportunity. Some of them have been written with 42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the purpose of adjusting him to the ideas of the writers, careless, ahiiost regardless of the facts that underlie his character and wonderful career. All of these many books and contributions are useful and beneficial, mainl}- because most of the writers about this pure-minded man have been, in their leading desires, of one mind in trying to place his beliefs, acts, and deeds, his fears and ambitious hopes, before the world in the most pleasing and imperishable form. Another thousand may still be added, and contribute much of what is necessary to complete the full, rounded-out his- tory of this best friend of downtrodden men since Calvary. The work, if it is done wisely and well, will further illustrate the life-work and exalt the character of one of the keenest, most penetrating, and best balanced intellects, and one of the kindest, most symapthetic hearts that ever existed. ifiTarrations and contributions about Lincoln, if truthfully given, can not be overdone, for if the story be true and in form to be understood, it will in some way add to the knowledge of the delightful, God-imaged man and remem- brance of his tireless life's work, devotion, and sacrifice for the relief and welfare of all men. The incidents of his ancestry, birth, youth, coming to early manhood, and activity, and the events in the course of his not very long public life have been so carefully gath- ered, assorted, and published in the various comprehensive works, and the smaller, no less valuable contributions, that little of fact remains to be told. There remains in the facts and the movements that made them, in the rushing of furious, culminating, and concluding events, in the relation of surprising, wonderful happenings, in the marvelous rise and progress of this plain, powerful, unpretending man. in the spirit and inspiration as he advanced in strength. that made, moved, and upheld him, more to be said than has yet been narrated of him. With a field for research and development concerning THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 43 human action, the springs that advance and the greed that holds down and retards progress, and a revelation of God's ways in dealing with men and their leaders that is full of interest, grandeur, and sublimity, so full of undeveloped good for men, high, undeviating purposes, unshaken patriot- ism and devotion, it becomes a task that will take the learn- ing, talent, persevering labor and enterprise of the best we have in all the land to rebuild, reclothe, and reveal Lincoln. His ancestry, training, development, the people about him, the questions of his time, and the men who labored with him and in many ways became part of the movement, what we know of this remarkable man and his work, of those who helped and those who hindered, especially of those who were steadfast and faithful to the end, are all subjects of present and increasing interest to our people, and deserve investi- gation, a truthful record, and deliberate consideration. Up to the time of the upheaval and party disruptions growing out of what were called "the Compromise Measures of 1850," to 1853-54, his progress to manhood and the plain, simple occurring events in his life were not much different from, but much alike in a general way, those of his friends and associates who grew to manhood and their life's work with him. He became a leader in a natural, easy way, without any unusual desire or devising on his part to be one, in as easy, unnoticeable, and ordinary course of events as a kind, worthy father becomes the leader and representative of his family. He was conspicuous as one of the foremost in every undertakng he engaged in while young, so that when he came to early manhood he seemed so well fitted for it that to lead in all things in which he had concern came to be a part of his duty b}' common consent. Illinois was, from the time of its admission into the Union in 1818, a reliably Democratic State. Not until after the slavery-extending compromises of 1850 had brought a widespread revolt in the Democratic Party was it consid- 44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ered worth while for the Whig Party, of which Mr. Lin- coln was a leader, or any one, to make a contest with hope of success. As a consequence of this party relation in the State for a full generation and the efficient and influential Democratic organization, a preponderance of the ablest and brightest men belonged to that party; but the slavery propaganda, in its overreaching demands, disrupted the party nowhere more completely than in the Democratic State of Illinois, the home of Mr. Lincoln. A large number of Democratic leaders and thousands of Democrats, trained under Jackson, Benton, and Douglas, after the slavery di- vision became ardent supporters of Lincoln, and remained faithful and true to him, influenced in no small way by his well-known high character among them as a neighbor and fellow-citizen and their confidence in him as an honest man as well as a successful party leader, although his party had been a minority one in the State. His ancestry came from the sturdy yeomanry of the middle English counties, Puritans who followed Cromwell. Later some of them joined the society of Quakers, many of them becoming emigrants and fugitives from king and kingdom, leaving England along with other conscientious persons, sects, and societies, enduring without complaint all the labors, privations, hardships, and sufferings met with in settling and subduing a new continent, which was free from the tyrannies of Europe because it was an uninhabited wilderness, except by its savage Indians. These men — the best of the lands which they left — had less fear of all that was in the wild forests than of the little, cruel-minded, titled lords and usurping kings who, in some way or other, constantly robbed them of their earn- ings, and carried on war against them, or some arbitrary suppression of their rights. They were willing and anxious to leave their homes, with all the attachments which cen- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 46 turies had endeared to them, if in doing so they could surely and certainly be free. They were willing to encounter the primeval forests, the unknown soil and climate, and the savage Ked Man, pray with and instruct him, and, in defense of their homes, if necessary, contend with him in battle, and risk their lives and those of all their people in the conflict. They met all these perils, came over in sailing ships which took weeks to cross the ocean in tedious, long, and tempestuous voyages. They struggled, fought, and peacefully contended with the savages as long as they could, avoiding strife and war with them whenever it was pos- sible. They toiled and worked, tilled and cultivated, and experimented with >the new soil in a less-understood cli- mate for the best and readiest means of subsistence. They were a people who had to earn their living in the good old way of tilling the soil and raising their herds, by a peaceful husbandry that afforded every one an occupation. They endured and enjoyed these in fuller detail, with patience, fortitude, and industry unequaled at the time in the settlement of any new country. They had persever- ance, determination, and courage equal to any emergency — qualities which they not only espoused and professed, but which they bravely and faithfully kept, that they might worship God and govern themselves as they chose. These conscience-driven emigrants, who came over in such vast colonies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were the best of men — sturdy, rugged, honest, and industrious people, who, with their ancestors, for centuries had en- dured, before landing on this continent, the most merci- less oppressions and persecutions that the world had known in modern times. The Puritan and Quaker people who came to the Colo- nies, along with Covenanters and Presbyterians from Scot- land, Dissenters, Huguenots, Lutherans, and others, from 46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. England, Germany, France, and the Low Countries — all free, independent religious sects where they could be— did a great and lasting work for humanity. As these did so much for freedom in iSTew England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the Eoman Catholics did as much in Maryland, Delaware, and elsewhere. Thus all these dif- fering religious bodies united in organizing Church, civil, and public affairs on the firm basis of civil and religious liberty. The Quaker people were a majority of the colony of Pennsylvania in its early settlement. Owing to the inde- fatigable and persevering labor of their unselfish leader, William Penn, they were so strong in the colony that their ideas of religious liberty, social order, and the equality of all men before the law, made the enduring foundation on which the colony and State have grown and prospered. It is true that their leader, Penn, had favor with the Crown, and had opportunities possessed but by few in his work, that he could easily have made himself master of a terri- tory as great and with natural resources as valuable and inexhaustible as those of England; but he and his co-labor- ers did so well and wisel}'', were so humane, patriotic, and unselfish in founding the colony, distributing the lands, which were an individual grant to Penn, with no franchises or rights reserved or given to any class, that the founder and, in the beginning, the owner in fee from the Crown, who generously added to this wide domain his own for- tune, died poor, almost penniless. In the founding of a great commonwealth on the broad basis of civil and religious liberties and the equality of men he and his co-laborers left a better, more desirable, lasting, and valuable heritage to mankind than if they had held and bequeathed this vast and rapidly-multiplying for- tune as the king who gave it fully wished and expected. The world reverently remembers Penn and his unselfish THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 47 founding of a free colony, while the king who gave it is almost, and his counselors are altogether, forgotten. These Puritans, Quakers, and other bodies, who were driven to the bleak, uninhabited land along the rough At- lantic coast, and who came to the Colonies as pioneers, be- came industrious, sober, orderly citizens. They made set- tlements in Jersey, the Carolinas, and Georgia, where they were not the majority, as they were in Pennsylvania; but in all wherever they established their homes they imme- diately set to work to build up the institutions of a free and enlightened people. They contributed in all ways, whether in control or with others, to the building up, sus- taining, forming, and putting in practical operation orderly and industrious systems of law and regulation in all the communities where they made their homes. They were believers in plain and simple living and the equality in law and privileges of all their people, in strong contrast with many settlements in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, and Georgia, where the Divine right of kings, prerogative, rul- ers, lords, and a subjected peasantry in some form made the basis on which the grants, plantations, counties, or Colonies were founded. They were industrious, frugal, thrifty, and persevering, and set about the work of tilling the soil at once; and in as short time as possible every one of them who was able found useful employment in the field, shop, or household. They began, when they landed on the stormswept shores, in the most practical sort of way to build shops, factories, and buildings for labor and its products, homes and dwell- ings for themselves, and shelter for the few animals they brought over the seas, thus beginning at once the labor operations and the use of the resources at hand for the founding of self-supporting, independent communities. In tilling the soil, caring for their flocks and herds, protect- ing the barter and commerce of feeble communities, and 48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. encouraging all that was possible in design, art, and pro- duction of labor, they made the great commonwealths of to-day a possibility. No tribute to those self-denying, papal and monarchy- driven people would be complete, however brief the men- tion, without recording something of their efforts and suc- cesses in planting, keeping alive, and never omitting the establishment of schools, colleges, and systems of learning wherever and whenever they could. Thousands of them had grown up without the learning and instruction com- mon at that day in the schools, colleges, and universities of Western Europe; but learned and unlearned, trained and untrained, all united in founding and completing the best they could institutions of learning, science, and art, to train the minds and brighten the souls of men. Many of them were unlettered; _ but they were far-seeing and magnanimous enough to provide and care for education just as they did for their rights and liberties in the systems which they were inaugurating and establishing on this new continent. These ideas and purposes prevailed so generally that in most of the Colonies they provided to the full extent of their means for schools with endowments, lands, franchises, and privileges. Belonging to and part of these plain, earnest, equal- right believing, and devoutly religious people we find the Pennsylvania and Virginia branch of the Lincoln family from whom President Lincoln descended. In this ancestry, under the careful investigation and research of many la- borious students, we find the hereditary proclivities, patient, determined inclinations to the positive beliefs of the Quaker people in general, and the Lincoln family in par- ticular, that "all men are created free and equal" before God, and that they should stand so in any system of gov- ernment or law. This foundation fact comes truthfully THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 49 and logically as the result of our somewhat lengthy investi- gation of the kind and the character of the people we have described, who landed on this continent and founded our Government. The Lincolns were strong in this belief. It is the most important fact revealed in the parentage of Mr. Lincoln, ■ and shows that the basis of his character and future action was well grounded in hun even before he was "so fearfully and wonderfully made." Thus he grew and developed to be a wise, able, and strong man, the representative of his people and their beliefs in a development, knowledge, and experience that made him a man, if you please, who looked back over two centuries passing before him — from William of Orange, Hampden, Cromwell, and Washington — at the guilt and wickedness of kings and princes and their abet- tors, resolved that wherever God led him he would strike them and their cursed oppressions. His immediate ancestors emigrated from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and, in time, with Daniel Boone and several other daring pioneers, they crossed the mountains into what was then the forests and the wild, unknown region of Ken- tucky, about 1770. The country west of the Alleghanies was then a wide, unexplored wilderness. Columbus was a strong, courageous. God-fearing man to brave every danger, discover a new world, bring hope to the crowded and op- pressed of every country in Europe, but not more than such daring, persevering heroes as Boone and his few strong- hearted pioneers who crossed the mountains with him. To the adventurous home-seekers — strong, fearless men — of that time it was a land of promise, a Canaan, a beautiful green England, as that was to the Norman, with endless stretches of forest, valleys, pastures, and wood- lands, with long, rolling hills in tireless succession, like the sea, to the north and westward for hundreds of miles, to the great Ohio and the mighty "Father of Waters," where 4 50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the evening sun sank in a continent as little known to them as those on the planet Mars are to-day. It had broad, unfolding areas of hill and valley and plain, with springs and fountains of clear, sparkling water, grow- ing into rivulets, streams, and rivers, chasing and toss- ing the water and spray along through beautiful green pastures, as graceful and pleasing to look upon as the mead- ows along the Severn, the Clyde, and the Shannon, whose tillage and civilization were old a thousand years ago. They found a bountiful land, rich in its productions, with its forests and woodlands full of. animals and birds, and its streams full of fish and water-fowl, with atmos- phere and climate so well adapted to their outdoor living that they thrived and grew strong under exposures and hardships which men could not have endured in the open air along the Atlantic coast, with its drenching, chilling storms. In a thousand ways they found a rich, comely, beauti- ful land, pleasing, animating, inviting to bold, adventur- ous spirits, who found in its boundless resources a hunts- man's paradise and a pioneer's delightful home. They were of the mold and make of men such as the Father has sent forward as the daring forerunners of commonwealths, States and nations — men whose fortitude and endurance were, equal to every trial and emergency — like those on the "Dark and Bloody Ground" of Kentucky, who attested, defended, and who, on their part, founded the freest and best Government God ever gave to men. Boone and his companions, among whom were the Lin- colns, were beyond doubt "the bravest of the brave" of the men of the frontier of that day, as strong and powerful in physical make-up as they were brave, daring, and ven- turesome in spirit and character. Boone was a leader of such capacity, strength of pur- pose, experience, and success that of the thousands who THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 51 pushed forward into the wilderness to build new settle- ments and new States, many of whose lives have been made glorious in legend, song, and story, there were none more ready, capable, and daring than the peaceful or warlike hero who, waking or sleeping, was always ready for im- mediate action, regardless of the difficailties and dangers that set thick about him and his little band in the many perils and contests they had with the savage Indians, Boone was so skilled, entertaining, persuasive, and in- stantly ready for any emergency that, when they cap- tured him in battle, which they did several times, they adopted and made him one of their tribe. He always es- caped at exactly the best time, eluded pursuits which other men or beasts could not, and reached his comrades in time for better defense and with increased knowledge of the strength and habits of their foes. He was so sleepless and careful of the value of moments that, plunging into the deepest forests at the highest instant of opportunity, he was always alert and knew precisely where to go. He was a remarkable leader in many ways, planting and founding a colony of a few families among thousands of hostile foes, holding and protecting, with feeble means of defense, com- pared with their adversaries, the beautiful land, watered with the blood of His comrades, until it became one of the first added to the galaxy of States after the Revolution. He was wise, and provided well in his day for the welfare of the coming millions, much better than he did for him- self. Under his care and protection the first legislative assembly ever held west of the Alleghanies met in his little settlement at Boonesborough, about 1790. There the people, by their representatives, enacted the few simple laws and regulations needed for their well-being and prog- ress, preparing in sense and form for the creation of local governments which would more effectually protect their liberties in organization and co-operation. IIBRARV "NIVERSfTY GF B 52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. In the settlements, or alone in the deep fastnesses of what was truly "bloody ground/' hotly contested and fought for, in the night vigil or the camp and field, supported or unsupported, in any and all conditions, and at all times, he labored long, patiently, faithfully, and well, that he might found a community of his friends and people, and leave them free and prosperous in its enjoyment. This much he and his compatriots did. He and some of these honest pioneers, among whom was the elder Abraham Lin- coln, served the body of their people so unreservedly and unselfishly that they lost their own holdings, and were pushed farther into the Western wilderness in their age and infirmity. It has been said of these hardy, strong men, descend- ants of only a few generations from Cromwell and his fol- lowers, that they were illiterate, ignorant, coarse men, un- used and unsuited to the higher positions and duties of citizenship, and that they were thriftless and in the depths of poverty because that was their natural condition. If all this be true, we should remember that out of these came the world-renowned Lincoln and thousands of our best men. The reasoning powers of any moderately well-informed person should be equal to the task of setting at rest all such fallacies. There is something in the ground for the subsistence and foundation of everything that lives or ex- ists upon it. A long line of able, determined men and heroic ancestry has preceded every real leader or reformer whom God has given to the human race. The few great ones whom we have mentioned were the children of cen- turies of development; and the three greatest since me- diaeval and modern times before Lincoln — Luther, Crom- well, and Washington — came from people and ancestry that had fought and contended for hundreds of years for the light that would lead to the liberties of men. Boone and the Lincolns and their brave followers into THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 53 the forest did as much for the land they loved and fought for, the diadem of living green set in the crystal rocks, sparkling waters, and rolling valleys of dear old Kentucky. They were men of their time: brave, fearless, and daring, equal to the best in the settlements they left to found a colony in an entirely unknown region. They were unlet- tered, like many of their time, but they had virtues of character which were full compensation. They had in- tegrity, fitness, and constancy that gave them victory or a pioneer's last resting-place, as it came to the elder Lincoln. They had few books; but they could read the signs in the air of the coming seasons, in the brooks and the sands the movements of their almost sleepless foes. In the firma- ment they talked with God through the stars, like the shepherds and prophets on the hills of Judea, and, like them, were assured that they had found the promised land after so many trials and losses and sufferings through the new wilderness. Cromwell wrote clumsy, unpolished let- ters and orders when he wrote any, and Washington could not have spelled his way through a "civil service examina- tion;" but they left a legacy of godlike wisdom to the world for all time. It would be pleasant to leave Boone, the founder of a great central State with the thought that, in our land of plenty and abundance, which his strong arm and stronger brain had done so much to build into prosperous, peaceful, and wealthy communities, that he succeeded in age to the ease, comforts, and happiness which came to so many be- cause he and his faithful, unflinching few suffered, gave life and limb and all they had, and succeeded in founding and establishing the great State. A very different fate befell him, the same that came to William Penn and many others since Moses, who led the way in a lifetime and hard- ship, who guided communities in all needful provision and preparation, that they and others could enjoy it. Boone, 54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the pioneer, organizer, legislator, and patriot, broke down under the load of his losses, disappointments, and infirmi- ties, and died in alien territory, where he had been driven by foreclosing usurers, who fell into possession of his beau- tiful Kentucky home, manor, and lands. In his old age he opened up a new home, not far west of St, Louis, in what was then the Spanish territory of Louisiana, which he lost in very much the same way that he had lost his valuable estate in Kentucky. Thus Boone died like Penn and like Moses, looking over into Canaan from Pisgah, on the western side of the great Father of Waters, poorer, with less of worldly wealth than when he and his friends — the Lincolns and their faithful few — started out to carve a commonwealth like Kentucky, with its coming millions, out of valleys, hills, and wilderness. Abraham Lincoln, the pioneer, the friend, and associate of Boone, colaborer with him and the little, persevering band, grandfather of President Lincoln, was killed while working in his little field, "a clearing" in Jefferson County, hy some savage Indians, who attacked him unexpectedly from ambush in the autumn of 1786. Thomas, his little son, not twelve years of age, father of the future President, was left alone with his dead father, while Mordecai and Josiah, elder brothers, ran to a neighboring stockade for help. They arrived in time to save the rest of the family and their little home from the flames, but the head of the household lay cold and dead; and the little boy was made melancholy for his lifetime by the remembrance of his father's sacrifice. There can be small wonder that his son was a sad, thoughtful man throughout his marvelous career. Such tragedies were common in the early settlement of all our States and Territories, and later, as we drove the Indians westward. Our blunders and misdirected efforts to civilize and deal with the Indians are occasionally as TEE MEN OF lllS TIME. 55 flagrant, ineffectual, and inhuman now as they have been from the beginning. We too long adhered to a policy whose result would be the ultimate extinction of the Indians. It often led them to rise in revolts, to be as regularly fol- lowed by exterminating campaigns against them, and the sacrifice of as many pioneer settlers and soldiers, in the ag- gregate, as there were Indians to be gotten off their lands. This policy continued, with enormous losses of life and property and much interruption of peaceful settlement and occupation. A sensible solution of the whole Indian question has been in practical operation in the Indian Ter- ritory, where as many as half of the surviving Indians live in comparative quiet. The people in many new settlements have been massacred, and many bands of savage and some friendly Indians have been exterminated in the frightful campaigns which have obliterated most of tHe other half. We can not wonder now as we consider the Indian ques- tion more understandingly that these savage people gave up their homes so reluctantly, who once held and inhabited all our vast domains, Avith the knowledge and light they had to guide them. They were brave and fearless beyond dispute, to the degree that torture and the most agonizing death were preferable to servitude or submission. They gave up their hunting-gi'ounds and their beautiful stretches of valleys, rivers, and plains, of such indescribable value to them, as they are now to us, that no earthly considera- tion could have been any sort of compensation. They yielded only when they were overpowered, or when a tribe perished. We should not wonder that they have fought for their homes, their ^^agwams. their hunting-grounds, the lands of their own bright memories and the traditional realms of a mightier people than themselves. They have fought with daring, skill, and cunning far beyond the white man's cal- culation. When aroused in defense, they had the savage ferocity of beasts; for this was all they knew of war. Their 56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. homes and hunting-grounds were priceless in their estima- tion, worth more to them than the lives of all their braves, which would have been freely given to keep them if a scat- tering few of their descendants could by this have held and occupied them. To a superior, overpowering race we would be much the same. This goodly land could only be taken from us when its men had fallen, and "peace reigned as in Warsaw," when its brave defenders were all slain. We know now, when tho Indian question is solved, and only a few of all the brave thousands are left, that it would have been bet- ter for us in many ways, would have saved multitudes of our own and the Indian people from torture and destruc- tion, and would have been a humanity within our preten- sion and more to our credit than the taking of their valu- able lands by force, to have brought them within the lim- its of civilization from the first, as we do these days with some of the fragments of these once powerful tribes of the Bed Men, whom we have conquered and almost extin- guished, whether rightfully or not. Boone and his followers founded one of the great States of the Union. Favored by nature in climate, resources, and beauty, it became and remains one of the strongest. It remains to be said that Boone and his men were so un- selfish that others reaped the reward of their labors, and the pioneers of Kentucky carried their civilization west- ward toward the setting sun. CHAPTER III. IN a shoal of disaster and adversity the family were driven from their home in the most productive to one of the most barren and vinproductive regions of the State. It was a new county, with hard and grinding neces- sity all about them, where hard, continuous labor was the common lot of every one. It had few of the comforts and conveniences which are so common now, and no luxuries or idle living. Here Thomas Lincoln, father of the future President, settled. In a country where every one followed some active in- dustry he grew up, and learned the trade of a carpenter. He was one of the best axmen in the clearings, where he built cabins for themselves and some kind of shelter for the few dom.estic animals they kept. In this work every man was expected to help. The most skillful labor required was to make and hang the wooden doors with wooden hinges, to make sash for the windows where they chanced to have glass for them, to lay the puncheon floors, and make kitchen tables and other articles of household neces- sity, including all the furniture of their dwelling, as the manufacture of these articles elsewhere was a later achieve- ment. There were no planing-mills, turning-lathes, nor the simple boring and mortising machines. Sawmills were scarce and far between west of the mountains as late as 1800. All kinds of constructive work, whether of road- making, fencing, bridging, erecting buildings or dwellings, and all kinds of manufactures or husbandry, were domestic 57 58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. employments, carried on by hand in the several settlements or colonies with the best means at hand. Thomas Lincoln's tools and accouterments for work were heavy, clumsy, half -made things as compared with the neatly-modeled, finely-shaped, and well-made ones so com- mon and obtainable everywhere to-day. There has been no greater progress in industry of any kind than in the im- proved tools, appliances, and equipments for labor and use in the arts, mechanics, and science of the century just ended. The tools of his trade were a handsaw, a crosscut saw for two men, and a whipsaw, with which one man tediously and laboriously sawed out by hand the few boards they used for doors, windows, and some little shelving in their dwellings, their tables, closets, bedsteads, and "presses," as their means permitted; also for the construction of their wagons, carts, plows, harrows, and such other articles as their agriculture made necessary. Their shingles, clap- boards for siding, roofing, and some such lumber, were split and rived out of the straightest-grained trees. He had, too, hammers, a few wrought-iron nails made by hand by the blacksmith, two or three augers, a steel square, a compass or dividers, two or three smoothing planes, a broad hewing ax, and his wood ax, the best and most use- ful implement of all, the most generally-used tool of any woodman, and the famous, ever-present utensil of the pio- neer. He had also a few cabinet-maker's and cooper's tools ; for a carpenter had to be, in those days, mechanic and arti- ficer in all kinds of work in wood as the needs of his com- munity required. With such an equipment the carpenter took the trees from the stump, built the houses, barns, fences, and the shelter of every kind for man and beast under their care, and all the articles made of wood in them. He made tables, bedsteads, chairs, and other household furniture as their wants increased and their means permitted. In their plain THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 59 and simple way of living they were contented, self-support- ing, industrious people, in better condition than they imag- ined, with more freedom and independence than is possible at present. The Lincolns were poor. It was natural enough and easily accounted for that they were when we consider their pioneer life and its embarrassments, the melancholy and trag- ical death of the father, and that it meant for them what is so common, not only the bereavement and loss of the head, but a breaking-up, dispersion, and exodus of the family west- ward to poorer lands and a less inhabited region, where they would be compelled to seek their several means of support. However, their condition was not unusual at the time. The worst of it was the loss of the father and an early separation. The half-grown family by this af- fliction were brought face to face with the duties of life and the struggle for existence out of time, lacking the ex- perience and the father's care, which nothing else could supply. Their condition, severe and necessitous, as we have seen, was no worse than that of most of their neighbors, and it was vastly better than many of them; for the Lincolns were frugal, sober, and industrious people, who got along pretty well in life, and who, by hard work and economy, were well fed, warmly clothed and housed. Their daily toil sustained, nourished, and developed men with strength and endurance for any human undertaking, making them models of manhood and manly excellence. They lived as well as the people about them in a little, rocky, hilly corner of the State, where all were poor, and where the land was worth little or nothing, and so remains to this day. The owner of his rough, unbarked, unhewn log- cabin home and "two yoke of steers" was a comparatively prosperous man. The principal resources and productions were game, fish, and stunted, gnarly timber, finishing up with 60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. a slender, dwarfed growth, most useful, because it was the most abundant and always salable when made into hoop- poles. There were narrow valleys along the streams, where two to three families to the mile could have their little garden and truck patches. But as the timber was cleared off, and the clay soil washed in and filled up these small fields, they became less and less productive, until the land was soon "worn out." . And it remains poorer to-day than when it had the game and fish which the early settlers found there, and hunted and fished for until they were well-nigh exterminated, as we found when there in 1862. Thomas Lincoln grew to manhood amid these unpro- ductive hills, almost in sight of the broad, alluvial bottoms of the rich Ohio Valley; but still his life and labors, severe as they were, gave him a well-developed make-up of mind and body. He grew as well to be a man of probity of char- acter and good standing in his little world or neighborhood, where, on reaching his maturity, he was known as a sober- minded, melancholy-turned man, thoughtful and consider- ate far beyond his years. He was a man of resolute moral character and steady temperate habits by the side of those whose carousals, reckless abandon, and dissipations were all too common. These good qualities descended from fa- ther to son, and reached almost perfect fulfillment in the full, rounded out, physical man and more positive character of the son. On the 18th of June, 1806, Thomas Lincoln, aged twenty-seven, and Nancy Hanks, aged twenty-three years, were married. They began their housekeeping in a small cabin in what was then a small village, Elizabethtown, in Hardin County. In 1807, a daughter, Sarah, was born. Their lives passed along peacefully and happily, with no unpleasant or untoward remembrance in the little com- munity. The little town was thriftless, and getting worse THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 61 as the lands wore out and the timber was cut away; and the game and fish disappeared before increasing population. It came to a standstill when it needed no new houses. Labor was plenty, without much other occupation than tilling the soil. Every householder became, in a meas- ure, his own mechanic, repaired his house and belongings, . which resulted in uncertain and unsteady employment i'or the carpenter Lincoln. The town being finished, so far as Lincoln's labors were concerned, with the increased respon- sibilities of his family resting upon him, they purchased a small farm on iSTolin's Creek, a few miles to the south. This was then in Hardin, but now in Larue County. The tradition in the neighborhood was that the farm contained about forty acres, with twelve to fifteen in tillage. They sold their holding without completing the payments, with no better record of its acreage or value, which was not more than four hundred dollars. That they prospered as well as the most "forehanded" of their neighbors goes without contradiction; else they would not have been able to begin farming on their own account at their time of life, even in so barren and fruitless a region as their destiny had placed them. That they were able to make a first payment, and had one or two horses and "a yoke or two of oxen," and some farming implements, mde as they may have been, to carry on the farm work, which they did for several years, is additional proof. At the time of their marriage their possessions consisted, besides cloth- ing, of his "kit of tools" and their small household furnish- ings. The latter were mostly Nancy's, that came to her by reason of the thrifty, careful habits and customs of the German-Anglicized Hanks family, who always started a daughter off at marriage with beds, bedding, and the com- mon utensils for industrious, if not comfortable, living. This was one of the mother's wise provisions after centuries of experience. 62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, They labored hard and constantly, and besides the sub- sistence which kept them strong and healthy, they gained a little from year to year, when, by the most careful econ- omy, they made subsequent payments, which benefited them when they sold their interest. They had made what was considered a comfortable living on the little farm. Their work was late and earl}^, and cheerfully borne. By all the traditions and stories left in the two or three little neigh- borhoods when we were there in 1862-3, they were honest, frugal, generous, and helpful among their neighbors, kind and agreeable in the family, friendly, sociable, and hos- pitable as it became Kentuckians to be at all times, with a kind-hearted spirit and generosity that made the visitor feel at home, with the comforts of the household and the confi- dence of its inmates all placed at his convenience and use. In this cabin home on the Nolin's Creek farm, on the 12th of February, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born amid such plain and simple surroundings as to betoken, so far, another advance in human liberty and progress, that had such beginnings and promises of future strength, prevail- ing power, and ultimate triumph, along the same lines as the birth in the lowly manger at Bethlehem. When Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks were married, they had reached full maturity, and were in the prime of mental and physical development, trained and seasoned in the knowledge and experience common among their fel- low-pioneers and early settlers. They were sound-minded, able-bodied, healthy, well-grown people, without constitu- tional disease or infirmities. They had sober, temperate habits, resolute character, and were as free and independ- ent as they were strong and healthy, with an increasing desire for the knowledge that was breaking in on the world in such streams and floods with industry that neither hesi- tated nor shrunk from any human labor or undertaking, with lovely, even-tempered dispositions. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 63 They were supplied with the tools for his trade, and later with the implements for their plain and simple farm- ing. With the few utensils and unpretentious furnishings for their little household they were as well prepared for the duties, trials, and struggles of life as any of the people among whom they lived, or, for comparison, relatively as well prepared for life and its duties as the great body of the people of our land to-day, and certainly more free of the cursed combinations of wealth, except the sin and abomi- nation of human slavery. The strong, leading fact should never be forgotten nor beclouded that the Lincolns belonged to and were of the common people, from whom all the reform leaders in the cause of human liberty have sprung and become a part of in the struggles that have advanced and bettered the con- ditions of our race. They were always content and satis- fied with their relation among their neighbors. President Lincoln was faithful to his lineage and the traditions of his people. He was always pleased in being known as one of them, familiar with their lives, their fears, their hopes, and their ambitions; and all through his won- derful career, when little known, or when distinguished as but one other man has ever been in our country, he never broke faith nor parted "v<^ith them. N"ancy Hanks, the wife, was a healthy, pleasant-appear- ing, confiding, shapely-fashioned, if not a handsome woman. She had more than an ordinary education and knowledge of affairs for her time. She could '^read, write, and cipher," and along with her cares and increasing responsibilities taught her husband these rudiments, and prospered him in many ways, helping him as she could to be as "well-read" and as well fitted for the business of life before them as any of his neighbors. By all who knew her, as story and tradition run, she was "handy," bright, intelligent, and entertaining. She 64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. had pleasing and engaging manners, making every one about her comfortable and at ease. Best of all, for the growth and well-being of her melancholy boy, she had a kind and even temper of mind, an affectionate disposition, and a courageous and hopeful devotion to her life-work in her household and little community. In these traditional memories, which formed so impor- tant a part of the little neighborhood, it was an easy and agreeable discovery to find the sources of "Abe Lincoln's determined spirit," high and noble character, and his mar- velous physical powers. His parents had these, which they transmitted to him; and he, with such fine combination of spirit, character, and strength, developed and further builded, making himself capable of the leadership God de- signed him for, which he as surely became as that man was ever inspired and clothed with his authority. He had a wise, good mother, a plain-minded, hard-working, honest father. They gave him a strong, healthy body. His father's toiling, laborious life was a constant in- centive to the most determined, persevering exertion. His mother instructed him in all that she knew, and impressed his growing intellect, as only a good mother can, with her patient, lovely disposition, teaching him to read his Bible daily when only five years old. With such groundings of integrity, perseverance, kindness, and labor, he was schooled and trained in his infancy in facts and experience that burned their work deep and lasting in his impressionable memory. What we know, or will ever know, of the Lincoln family in Kentucky, of the happenings that came to them, espe- cially of the seven years of "Abe's" infancy and early boy- hood, as they differ from the ordinary, will necessarily be based on slender facts and traditions. They were not pos- sessed of much worldly wealth or store. They were poor, but not thriftless people. They had never suffered for shel- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 65 ter or clothing, plain as it was, to keep them warm and com- fortable, or the subsistence that fed and sustained and kept them strong, healthy men and women. Some who have written of Mr. Lincoln have represented the family as living in deep poverty, almost distressed, and as ignorant as they were poor and thriftless, and that his life was a constant struggle to raise himself out of the low and ignorant conditions in which he was born and grew to manhood. The best refutation of all such fallacies and falsehoods will be to give all the facts, with as much col- lateral support as may be attainable, with as plain and sim- ple reasoning as may be, as we proceed, which has been a constant and increasing endeavor. Mr. Lincoln was and wanted to be known as one of the plain, common people. It will be one of our great desires to show that he was. It is true that he possessed high and masterful genius, in which, or in comparison with whom, no man of his time was his equal; but he was a true be- liever in the truths that he taught, that all men are free and equal before the law and before God, and he did not desire any franchise, privilege, or right that was not shared and enjoyed by the most humble and lowly of his fellow- men, and in all their contests against tjTanny, oppression, and the usurpations of power and wealth he was their friend, advocate, and defender to the full extent of his power. The Lincolns were poor, measured in money and prop- ert}^ but richly endowed with all the qualities that make generous and righteous-minded people. Their associates, the pioneers and early settlers of the most fertile and rich- est inhabited valley of all the earth were poor, but they were opening in wealth and abundant productions for com- ing generations, such aggregates of uncountable value as would have been held to be fabulous in Mr. Lincoln's boy- hood. 5 00 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He grew to manhood poor, and among the poor, as they are designated, having opportunities for acquiring money and property, which he did not avail himself of, having opportunities also of improving his mind, broadening his understanding, bettering his race, and building the strong- est character of the age in which he lived, which, to his lasting credit, he improved and used as well as man or spirit could or ever did, as far as human knowledge tells. Much has been said and written on this subject of wealth and poverty and their influences in the training, growth, and development' of men, but not more than should be, nor as much as we need and should have, if, in coming, it could better establish the truth. It is not likely that the relatively poor condition of the people among whom he lived, or his own, or that of his family, was any sort of hindrance, but rather an essential and positive help for him in his preparation for the mighty struggle as leader of a nation. Of all the thousands who knew and loved and followed him, no one, known or heard of, ever thought that wealth, or greater power, or any training or preparation, would have bettered and improved him. All seemed to know and realize that a power greater than his own sustained him, and that he had the best qualification he could have for the place he held. Long centuries of darkness, ignorance, and oppression had riveted the chains of some cruel bondage on the races of men. The black man in the middle of the nineteenth century was a chattel, bartered and sold from the auction block. Luther, Cromwell, and Washington had lifted great loads from the worn and weary and overburdened in their own and other lands. The chains had been broken that held down many a right and privilege from mankind. The grinding had been slow, but all the more certain and sure, as that God's wisest purposes are often traced in THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 67 the footsteps of ages. He had favored, and in the fullness of time the Eepublic was builded; but if it was to progress, its beastly black man's bondage had to be crushed out and obliterated just as now, when, if further progress is to come, the crushing load of greedy, glutted wealth must be taken from the back of every man who now earns such scanty liv- ing in a land of such overwhelming plenty, where now our increased labor and production only further gorge the coffers and warehouses, already swollen and bursting with the profits and products of plundered labor. In the Eepublic the absorbing topic, the never-to-be-set- aside question, from 1820, when Missouri was admitted, so far enlarging the domain of slavery, to 1850, when Texas was added in war, with an area five times as great, out of which five great States were to be made, as needed, to pre- serve the domination of the slave power, was this: "Can thus cursed, labor-robbing, labor-degrading system be con- fined to its, then, present limits, restricted in any way, abolished or placed under a certain process of ultimate extinction, as hoped for and promised on the foundation of the Nation?" All the restrictive agreements, settlements, and compromises had been disregarded, disobeyed, and de- fied as often and as certainly as the growing aristocracy desired territory for expansion or States added for the preservation of its power and ascendency. From 1852 to 1860, regardless of law or plighted faith, the demand was made in Congress, in many ways, in two Administrations, those of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, and before the Supreme Court, that slavery be recognized and sustained as a national institution, or that those who favored it would divide the Nation and build a slave aristocracy or empire of their own. Thus the questions in dispute narrowed, as they usually do when oppressors can be contended with and resisted with power equal to or greater than their, own. They had 68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. been too prosperous and successful in the accumulation of wealth and power to bear restriction or submission, and as they had calculated and foreseen, while quadrupling their holdings and power through forty years of compromise, they had also prepared for war to save their power and domina- tion, and were ready for it. When this terrible reality was fully disclosed and made plain, the burning question on every freeman's lips was. Can the Nation live, or will it be sundered into petty, disputing States, overshadowed on the south by an American slave empire, taking in and controll- ing the slave States and the territory south to the Isthmus of Panama; surrounded, too, on the north and northwest by the monarchy-ridden provinces of Britain? Deep, signifi- cant, and direful as these questions were, they were the ones to be met and answered by Lincoln; eventually by Douglas, when his vision cleared ; by both as the great lead- ers of millions as brave and patriotic men as ever served or fought or fell in liberty's cause. The time was at hand when God alone could save the Eepublic ; for men with power, long official experience, these with the little army and navy dispersed and dissipated, and with the favor and sympathy of kings and kingdoms through- out the world against us, had planned and plotted well for our utter destruction. As God rules, and as sure as he planted and made the Colonies a Nation and raised up one of the world's leaders in that time, another leader had to come, and did come, fully believing in his mission, with physical and intellectual endowments, force, character, and endurance, and the skill and genius of one who never hesitated, who always led, in one of the most dangerous and hazardous emergencies ever confronted by any people. Wealth would not have brought or developed him, for its chief use in those days was to sustain and defend the system, even in States most indebted, like New York, to free labor. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 69 Training in military life, civil or public office, would not alone have fitted any one; for of those most favored and trusted, half of them, or more, were not seeking their coun- try's highest good and prosperity, but its division — if pos- sible, peacefully; or if not, then its destruction; and of the other half, many were hopless ; some, too, were doubters and faithless. A few were resolute and stout-hearted in the beginning, and mostly remained so through their lives or to the end; but no generally-trusted leader up to 1856, who could lead all the men and save the country, had appeared. Of all who rose and appeared in the crisis, of all the bright, gallant souls who lighted the pathway of the millions who loved their country, and the hundreds of thousands who fought and fell for its liberties, there was no one like Lincoln. He came at the right time, in a way that no one knew Just how, but in a way that was entirely satisfactory to a host of the bravest and best men, in an age of heroics that has not been surpassed. He came, not in grandeur, nor in stately array nor panoplied power, nor yet in the classical academic form, but in the plain Christian way, in indisput- able confirmation of the truth of Christ's gospel, from among the poor and lowly; the only source from which you may expect a leader in the cause of freedom. Stephen A. Douglas, of whom we will have much to tell, the long-time neighbor, personal friend, and political an- tagonist of Mr. Lincoln, had ancestry and growth relatively much like his, and was as certainly one of and from the com- mon people, vni\\ line and lineage running back into the barren highlands of Scotland, to as poor rocky highlands in Vermont. Like Lincoln as much as could be, who was from the rugged rocks of Kentucky, he camo to the rich alluvial lands of the richest State in the West, to be a leader of the people, if not like him, still in the end with him, and like him in his rising. Douglas was as poor and of the lowly, as we will see. These poor, self-taught, self-trained boys 70 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. of the backwoods and forest, who trusted, opposed, dis- cussed, and debated and argued with and against each other, were the leading candidates of their respective parties. They defeated and redefeated each other, but united finally in the most powerful combination, and with the single de- termined purpose of saving the Nation. We visited the birthplace of Mr. Lincoln in the autumn of 3862, and several times afterwards in that and the fol- lowing year, but chiefly in that delightful season, in the soft air and languid sun of those mellowed days when nature seemed at ease. The hazy-laden sky subdued the glories of the bright-mingled leaves of the forest, waving in a mild- tempered sunlight that brought out in change and contrast all their loveliness and beauty. Under a lazy, smoky canopy there was blending color, distinct and charming as the rain- bow paints the summer shower. In such days when our armies were in Northern and Central Kentucky, several of us who knew and honored Mr. Lincoln, when we realized how God had enlarged his work, finding ourselves in reach, took all the time that could be given to visit and examine the region, and to learn all we could of the land and its inhabitants, and what was left in their memories of fact and tradition concerning the Lincolns, where they lived and where he was born and grew to seven years of age. The territory embraced is small. It is not more than ten miles square, nor more than that in any continuoiTS route over it. It takes in the two villages of Elizabethtown and Hodginsville, and the Nolin's Creek farm. We walked and rode all over the ground, as we could in every direction, on every open road and bridle-path, and often crosswise with- out either path or road. We traveled up and down the little roads and streams, scouted, zigzagged, and paralleled over it in something like military exploration, examining it in every way we could, riding as much as one hundred miles in traversing the district in every direction, to learn all we THE MEN OF II IS TIME. 71 could of that spot of earth, almost hallowed, as the birth- place of our friend, at the time President and the burdened, sorely-tried leader of our armies. In our way, examining it as thoroughly as we could and visiting about all of the people then living there, in their homes, getting all the information that we could concern- ing our leader or his family, we made it a pleasant duty. It is some thirty miles south of the Ohio Eiver, fifty miles south and a little west of Louisville. It is a little corner in two counties, in and among the poor, slaty, shaly, limestone hills and the aforetime pretty gravel-bedded creeks, but covered then two or three feet deep with clay and rocks, washed from the timber-shorn land. We were there in the fall when the ripened crops, scanty as they had been, were gathered. There was a wornout con- dition of the soil, and an anxious, almost forlorn ap- pearance of the inhabitants that was unusual, almost dis- tressing to us, even in war-times, surprising us that, in sight of such fertile lands, any industrious people would remain on such barren, denuded hills. The best of the gnarly, knotty, and brushy little trees still left on the half-bare hillsides at their best, were scarcely over twelve to fifteen feet high, or over three inches in diameter. Of these, many were Avithering and dying, and the largest of them in the bottoms were not more than six or eight inches in diameter. Most of these had been cut away to build and repair the few cabins of the remaining dwellers and for fuel. We wondered much that such a desolate, unpromising stretch of barren, rockv hills was inhabited. We made in- quiries, and ascertained that not many of those living in the small villages and scattered cabins depended on the lands in the vicinity for a living. One old man told us that "These 'ere cabins wuz ockerpied in gineral by wimmin and childern and old, wornout fellers like me. The men and the grown- 72 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ups are mostly in the armies, one side or t'uther, and some 's workin' on the river. Some uv 'em are up in boat-bildin' shops at New Albany and Lewisvill, and some 's runnin' boats and eoalbarges down the river frum Pittsburg, apast Cincinnaty, and away down the river as fur as Cairo, and clean down to Memphis, whar the Guv'ment is buyin' lots uv coal. So you see these folks are a-livin' about as well here as they can anywhar in these parts, and cheaper and better pertected than they would be along the river towns. I wondered when I heerd that you fellers wur a-traveling all over this country, and askin' all about it, if you raly thort that we depended on raisin' crops on these pore, worn- out hills fur a livin'." We inquired of another quite intelligent-looking old man, whose age and infirmity were sufficient to keep him out of service for or against the Union — presumably a Union man, as we found most of these people to be — what he thought of the country, and why they lived on and on in such a region, with fertile lands within easy reach. His reply was characteristic of one who had seen happier and more prosperous daj^s. His roused up his athletic figure, in form at least of what he had been, and the bright flash from his strong, gray eyes showed plainly enough that he was in no sense a mendicant, but having the independence of a self-supporting, industrious man — one, too, who had lived among and associated with men of intelligence and reputable character. Drawing himself up, as he remem- bered a stronger manhood, he said, in substance: "Yes, gentlemen, this is a pore country now, and most of its able- bodied, well sized-up and likely sort of men have left for other parts, and the wimmen and sum children and sum old-like, wornout folks, like Betsy and me, who are a-livin' apast their time, is about all that is left ; but it war n't alius so pore. Afore they cut down and hauled off most of the trees, and killed and druv out the birds and the squirls and THE MEN OF HIS TIME 73 all the game, and when they tuk away the timber and shade, arter that the sun kinder dried up the clay hills, and the winter and the spring storms and floods filled up the little cricks with gravel and rocks and clay. So now we have these dried-up clay and stony bottoms whar the pretty little cricks used ter run, and the birds and game as war n't killed or starved have found water and shade and sumthin' to live on whar they take better keer of thar timber and thar rivers and cricks and medders fur paster. We know that we are pore, porer than we war when I war a young man, when we came frum Ole Virginny; but me and the boys have wurked on the river most uv the time, and the two uv them that are not in yore army are wurkin' thar now. I am gettin' old and wornout and not fit fur nothin' much any- how, and, like most uv us, when we git old and broke down and helpless-like, we must stay whar our little cabins in these pore hills, and our little savin's in them, are all the homes and firesides we 've got. "Our likeliest men and all our healthy, growin' young fellers and boys hav jined the army, or the secesh, or gone to the river; but, stranger — and I take you to be real gen- tlemen, 'cause yo 're wearin' the unef orm uv the Union — if this air country is pore, it has raised and sent to other parts sum likely men. I knowed sum of them myself. The Hardin s, and a lot of folks with them, almost a neighbor- hood, went to Eleenoy afore it war a State. The BuUitts, and a whole lot more with them, went to Louisville; and Abe Lincoln was born over thar on Nolin's Crick. "Abe, when he was a boy, and his folks, and the Hankses, and sum more with them, went over to the big timber in Indiany and on to Eleenoy; and Abe — God bless him! fur he 's honest — is now President uv these United States, and I 've heern tell all along he 's about the best President we 've had since Washington, and he 's goin' to save the Union ; fur he 's got the grit and backbone to do it. I 74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. did n't get to vote fur him, fur there were n't no allowin' tickets fur him here ; but as sure as I 'm a-livin, I 'm a-goin' to vote fur him next time. So is the boys, and a whole lot more uv them. There is n't another man livin' in Americky that can beat him." We came first to Elizabethtown, supposing it was the principal point of interest. We looked over the few scat- tered cabins and rough-boarded-up houses, all of one story, and having not more than two or three rooms each. The two main roads crossed about the center of the village, with bridle and foot paths converging on these for a center. There were not more than a dozen of such dwellings in the town, if so many. We were directed to a broken-down, di- lapidated, rough, one-room cabin, with a shed-room, un- roofed, in the rear. The front was about twelve by four- teen feet square. The back room attached was about eight by fourteen feet. We had looked over it, mounted, and were leaving it, believing, as we had been told, that it was the birthplace of Mr. Lincoln. We had not gone far when a woman past middle age, who came running up a path to meet us, said: "I hearn tell that you gentlemen thought that Abe Lincoln war born thar; but he war n't. That house [point- ing to it] is what is left of the cabin whar his father and mother commenced housekeepin'. My mother knowed them well, and alius said that they war smart, likely sort of folks, and alius pleasant and easy to git along with. Thomas Lin- coln never had enough work to keep his family as he liked to here; and mother alius said they did a heap better arter they moved to the farm. No, Abe warn't born thar. He war born over to the farm on Nolin's Creek, arter they moved. Mother knowed them, and she alius did say they war nice, pleasant folks." We thanked her, and were obliged for her information, which proved to be correct. Some one of our men left her some coffee and sugar, for which she thanked us as we rode THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 75 on our way. In due course we readied the farm and the cabin on Nolin's Creek. We went all over it. It was a small valley farm, with not more than twelve to fifteen acres of any kind of tillable land. We looked carefully over the then unoccupied, decaying cabin, which was not much different in appearance, size, or manner of construction or material in it, from the one which the Lincolns had in Elizabethtown. It was built of small, unhewn logs, cut in and notched at the corners, making it strong and solid, and letting down the logs close on each other, so as to make a house-wall with few openings. These were filled with chinking and clay mortar, so that the cabin, though plain and unpretentious, was warm and comfortable. The front part was about twelve by fourteen feet square. The shed, or rear part, was about half as large. There had been a loft or garret over the front part for beds and extra bed- ding, and sleeping-room for the younger ones of the family. Our party, with several of the neighbors, examined the place with much interest and care; and as we looked over it, all did so with becoming respect. There was no one of the little party — five of ours and ten or more of the people, most of the latter being women — who had any dif- ference of opinion that the spot was one made sacred to the cause for which we were contending, and, in a broader sense, to liberty and patriotism forever. When we had finished our inquiry, and had been all over the breaking-down dwell- ing and neglected premises where our honored leader was born and had grown to seven years of age, we departed with profound respect and satisfaction. The people there, though familiar Avith the place, and seeing it very often, were im- pressed with the dissolving homestead and its suggestive surroundings, and left it Avith the respectful feelings which filled us all. Of those who aided us in our search, some had sons or brothers or fathers in the Confederate armies, or had 76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. lost them in that service. More of them had the same in our armies; but in our work of investigation we did not find man, woman, or youth who did not cheerfully work with us and help us in every way to gain all the Icnowledge we could of "Abe Lincoln." All of them expressed full faith in his integrity, honesty, and, what we noticed par- ticularly, all agreed in the tradition that the family had strength of purpose and determined character. One old man remarked that "the Lincolns were like Boone, who never deserted a friend or gave up his cause, and if the Union can be saved, Abe Lincoln can do it. I have two sons in your army, and if you will take me, I '11 go along myself." Our visit was a jjleasant one in many ways. We found loyalty to the country and prevailing sympathy for Lin- coln among our own Union people and respectful interest by those who had themselves, or whose relatives had, served and suffered on the other side. Some of those who had taken up the slaveholders' cause were sorely tired of it; for it had brought them nothing but disaster, death, and destruction on every hand, such as had never been thought possible. There had been very few slaves in that part of the State. In all such communities in the South the Union sentiment was strong, proving the fact, which was one of Mr. Lincoln's most positive and oft-repeated beliefs, that free government depends on the common people — men who make their living, educate, and train themselves by the products of their own labor and intelligence. When we had finished our examination, which was car- ried on irregularly, as time permitted, through several weeks, we came away, as we believed, much benefited by all we had seen. We had been all over the little farm and through the neighborhoods. We had seen and been through the homely dwelling where the great soul of Lincoln first saw the light of the world. We had seen and mingled with the THE MEN OF HT8 TIME. 77 people of his boyhood, where we found the same sentiments and beliefs and hopes of him that we held ourselves. We left this little corner of creation with pleasant memories and the hope that the ancestral State of Kentucky, or the big, busy Nation, would take time some day to make the Nolin's Creek farm one of the most sacred shrines of lib- erty within all our borders. Long ere this we knew Lincoln well in our homes, and had followed him years before the body public knew there was such a man and leader; but here, on these poor hills, we had begun with him where he was born, over all the roads and paths and creeks and hills his childhood feet had trod. We had seen the people among whom his throbbing life began, and received confirmation of our own belief con- cerning him; for all of them, as we did, loved and honored "Abe Lincoln" — some of them, may be, because he was born there and lived with them a few years of his child- hood, but the most of them because what the man was and had done held and charmed them. His nativity among them was only incidental, as we be- lieve; but it made their sympathy for him and our cause all the stronger, as local attachments always do. But the birth and short residence did not shape or found their belief in him; for it so happened that Jefferson Davis had birth, education, and long residence not far away, and we have not heard man, woman, or friend or foe, make com- parison, or think it was necessary to tell or attempt to explain it, or in what relation these Kentucky people held the two men. They were both able, forceful, powerful, but not in the same degree or kind; so the comparison ended, and the common people best understood the great difference between them. We found it true in Kentucky, just as it was in Illinois, that these plain people, who knew Mr. Lincoln, or knew of his family and its reputation, were always his most sincere 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. friends and followers. Many of them we saw there ex- pressed opinions of him and our cause in the strongest language at their command and in manner that was more convincing. Among several we noted another whom we remember, that very earnestly declared: "I 've been a Democrat all my life, and I 've followed Jackson and Ben- ton and Douglas; but when I found out that Jeff. Davis and Breckinridge, Toombs, Yancey, and a lot of those hot-headed Carolina fellers, were goin' to break up the Union if they couldn't have their own way and extend their black man's slavery and poor man's op- pression wherever they had a mind to, I quit, and I 'm goin' to support Abe Lincoln, because I believe that it is the only way to save the Union, and I have confidence to believe that he will do it. He's honest and true, and we 've never heern tell that he 's ever gone back on his friends and neighbors, even if they was poor, and that he 's just plain Abe Lincoln, if he is President of these United States ; and he 's got lots of sense, and he 's not stuck up a bit, bein' thar." The result of our observations, after getting over the territory and learning all we could from the people, was as well given in their statements as we can do it. It was pretty well summed up by the old patriarch of the hills, who had two sons on the river and two in our army, whom we met again. In parting, he thanked us for some small remembrances, and said: "God bless you and prosper you and our cause — and I believe that he will — and save this great nation for his people ; and do n't forget us pore people down here, who are glad you came and saw for yourselves whar honest Abe Lincoln war born. The Lincolns wuz pore. They could 'a' been anything else ; fur everybody that lived here when they did, and all uv us that are here yit, are pore; and it will alius be so in this country, fur every kind of farmin' and crop-raisin' that we've tried makes THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 79 it a harder and worse imdertakin' to dig a pore livin' out of our starved, wornout soil, with the timber about all gone and the streams about all dried up. I think it will be so every jesiT that we hold on and keep a-tryin'. Yo 're right: the Lincolns wuz pore; but they war hard-workin', honest people, and we alius liked them," We met, also, x^ustin Gallagher, an old man, who once rescued little Abe, when a lad, from drowning, when he had fallen into the creek from a broken log. He was proud of his service, which all the people agreed was providential. He had known the Lincolns well. His remembrances were in confirmation of what we have related. The rescue was fortunate, if not providential; but the old patriarch said that "shorely He who cares for the sparrows wuz as shorely carin' fur the boy." Notwithstanding all the difficulties, hardships, and dis- asters which had befallen the family in two generations in Kentucky, and the dangers and uncertainties that threat- ened them in going further west, into the deeper wilder- ness, in search of a home, where their hard labor and ex- posure would bring a better reward than on those worn- out hills, with what was left of the grit and courage of the family under the pressing necessity of the situation plainly before him, Thomas Lincoln wisely gathered up his fam- ily — his wife, two children, and himself — packing them and all their earthly belongings into a two-horse wagon, and emigrated two hundred miles northwestward to Spencer County, Indiana, near Gentryville, into a heavy-wooded, fertile country, in 1816. We found it true and verified by all we saw in those counties that the Lincolns were poor, and suffered many privations in their Kentucky home, but no more than their neighbors, and nothing like as much as many who were idle and thriftless because of the competition of slave labor about them. In that little region, at the time, to make 80 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. any kind of living, all of them were compelled to be frugal, economical, and industrious. The trial was, no doubt, useful and beneficial to them all; surely so to the coming leader, who was training for his life's work. These people, in the early days of the century, when comforts were few and labor was the duty of every able-bodied person, like the Lincolns and those among whom they lived, were more independent and self- supporting than the body of our people are to-day. There are differences, it is true, but the presumption, arrogance, and grasping greed of the titled tyrants of Europe and of the slaveholders and their aiders and abettors of that day were not effectively worse than the heartless, wicked men who force upon us the starving and labor-cheating pro- cesses of the corrupt, bullying millionaires and law-twisters and diverters of our own remarkable labor and wealth producing time. CHAPTER IV. DAVID, the shepherd, who calmed contending factions, reunited warring tribes, and saved the Hebrew nation, in the rapture of his inspiration sang, "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being nnperfect; and in thy book all my members were WTitten, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." (Psalm cxxxix, IG.) Disorganized tribes, running adrift in contention, he gathered together, rehabilitated them, and became their leader to restore their nation, to possess the land, and enjoy it. This is as distinctively shown and positively proven as that Moses led them out of bondage to the borders and in sight of the promised land of Ca- naan. The task before our leader, Lincoln, in the time we are writing of, was, in many respects, more diflficult, more serious, and, as wisdom and experience tell, as much greater as the interests of thirty millions of people are greater than five millions. We believe that God in wisdom and mercy rules over and controls the affairs of men; and this belief is sustained by Holy Writ. It is upheld by reason, analog}', and all human history. The plainest sense, the common interpre- tation, and the concurrent judgment of the wisest and best men of all time confirm it. A just and righteous people protect the rights of all — the weak and the helpless as care- fully as the strong and powerful. Further, the record of every God-fearing people is one of peace, comfort, and hap- piness, or a determined struggle for it with all their might and power. Tyrants, oppressors, and extortioners in power 6 81 82 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. always conceal their purposes and wickedness in every pos- sible way, and flee from the light of men, while liberty- loving people attract and invite all men to join and assist them and keep their affairs open and honestly proclaim their principles to mankind. If these statements are true, God is our Euler as truly and certainly as that we are subjects of his creation. Wlio fashioned man as David sang in his inspiration? Who can contend with God, as" Job reasoned in his distress and afflic- tion? In the realization of these great truths we come into the strongest light and the clearest pathway that can guide us in the consideration of the life and times of the men who labored with, and the men and the people who sustained us, and the environments which surrounded Abra- ham Lincoln. Therefore it was no accident that he descended from people with strong, healthy bodies, intelligent minds, im- bued with exalted ideas of human character; nor was it a strange consequence that his people, while not suffering from actual want, were, by their situation, like aU those about them, compelled to house and feed and clothe them- selves out of the earnings of every day's toil. Nor was it strange or unusual that these men — the father in affliction, and the young leader positively — in thought and reflection were made studious and sympathetic by their labor, sacri- fices, and losses, and that they had periods of doubt, de- spondency, and gloom. "We met an intelligent woman near Elizabethtown, who, among other remarks, said: "Thomas Lincoln was a real nice, agreeable man, who often got the 'blues,' and had some strange sort of spells, and wanted to be alone all he could be when he had them. He would walk away out on the barrens alone, and stay out sometimes half a day. Once when he was out thar, one of my boys, what he did n't see, hearn him talkin' all alone to hisself about God and THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 83 his providence and sacrifices, and how thar war a better, more promised land, and a whole lot of things what my boy knowed nothin' about, in the Scripture. This was when they lived over thar on Xolin's Crick, on the farm. Some of us was afeard he was losin' his mind; but when they packed up all their things, and went to Ingiany, his spells left him, as we hear'n tell, though he was alius sol- lem-like ev'n thar, whar they all could make so much bet- ter livin', whar the}' had the big woods full of deer and all kinds of game and fish, and nice little openin's 'tween the thickets, whar they could hav thar truck and gardenin' patches. "Nancy got joyful like, mor'n any of 'em; for her and John Hanks war the fust that wanted to go. Abe war a querish sort of a boy then, so consid'rn' and old like for a six or seven year ole chap; but then ther war a lot of our folks work'n on the river, and every one on 'em liked the boy, and tole him stories an' yarns that war amazin', an' they did see lots an' lots of things that we folks never dreamed on, an' got to be reel smart men, some of 'em. Some of our folks went 'way down the river on the big boats two or three times, 'wav down on the biggest river to Xew Orleans before Abe's folks moved to the big woods, an' they declared ther war more houses thar then ther war in the State of Kaintuck}', and houses, four of 'em bilt, one right on top of t'other, an' boats an' boats, big and little, they raly did say, up an' down the river, as close as they could tie 'em, for mor'n ten mile, as it 'pear'd like. Some of 'em said Abe went mopin' round, and had spells like his father; but then they war mistak'n about him, just like they war about Thomas. Abe did n't have spells. It was just the way his face 'peared when he was sober and thinkin' like and a-studyin', what he alius did when he could get a book; and it did set everybody a-won- derin' to see how much he knowed, and he not mor 'n seven.*' 84 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. The seven years of Abe's childhood spent among these poor hills were dull and somber enough for his parents, whose daily toil and shortening returns were increasing. Time and the cares of life and family were increasing their responsibility, finally to become the moving force that would make them emigrants and seekers for better and more pro- ductive lands. Multitudes sought homes in the West at that time, and have continued to do so — all of them with the hope of bettering their condition. Most of these came voluntarily; but Thomas Lincoln was driven by hard neces- sity to be a pioneer, when it would have suited him best to have found means of living in some older settlement than he was leaving. He had little or nothing of the ad- venturous spirit in his make-up. He was a man of steady habits and conservative methods, who, in the older South- em communities, would have become, in the routine of suc- cession, a burgess and a squire, but who, in the mad rush and ventures into uninhabited regions, was slow and con- siderate enough to be called dilatory and careless, sometimes more than that. He possessed the all-around fitness and ability to be moderate and considerate where so many about him were hasty and immoderate. His example and the confidence of his friends in his wisdom and judgment led many of them to choose the nearer, partly-inhabited region of South- ern Indiana, when others desired to go to the wilder, less- settled country west of the Mississippi. Some, however, went to a tolerably well-settled part of Central Illinois when, by careful savings, they had sufficient means for the purchase of a permanent home for the family. Thus they found a good home at the time when the flood-tide of im- migration was seizing the fertile lands of our great West- ern States. Thus, after three generations of migration westward, the Lincolns obtained a home where all who could work THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 85 could not only subsist, but live comfortably. In doing this they brought their thoughtful, overgrown boy and the ex- pectant youth, who was almost a man at nineteen, to the field of his life's labor and achievement. Besides the hope of bettering their condition, there was another urgency that had much to do in driving the family from Kentucky, as it did many thousands of people like them. Not only had the blight of slavery darkened the land with its immoralities and inherent deviltries, but to every man who was to live by his own labor and exertions and enjoy the reward of his earnings, there was added, in their own community, the burden, the direct competition, of the stolen labor of the black man. By this system all labor was dragged down to the level of the cheapest means of existence, to or below that of well-fed animals; and the cursed burden was placed on every trade, occupation, and industry, in some measure: on the farmer, mechanic, skilled artisan, and all who were aided by their prosperity, strik- ing all directly or indirectly in the frantic fury of its de- stroying ascendency, forcing civilization backwards to despot- ism and barbarism. The Lincolns, prudently foreshadowing the consequences to people in their circumstances of life, with rare good judgment fled early from the den of slavery horrors, and well as they would have done to flee from an Egyptian plague. Three generations of them, at least, had been free and independent in their beliefs. No such hopes and pur- poses as theirs could exist alongside of slavery. They were wise and foreseeing, and, in their line of duty, were put- ting God's intentions and power into effect. They took a dozen families with them in their movement, and thou- sands afterward followed their early example. Thomas Lincoln must be given credit for unusual pru- dence and foresight in getting his family and so many as- sociates to a more productive region, where the legal and tra- 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ditional rights of his people could be enjoyed and sustained. Here they would be as free as any in the land from the withering curse of slavery, in a State fully admitted to all the rights and privileges of any State, and uncontami- nated with the curse, and as sure as any one of them to remain so. But to go into the wilderness as they did was a sad and melancholy change that took all the courage of their hearts and strength of mind for the undertaking. In undisguised sorrow they left the homes of two generations, and parted with all the friends they had or knew who did not go with them. Whatever regrets it occasioned, it became a duty for the parents; and although it was something new, it was a disagreeable change for little Abe, whose load of re- sponsibility was always greater than his years. In later life he sometimes referred to these years as a time of unexpected difficulties and trials for his own and the people connected with them, who worked in Kentucky for a very scant livelihood, and who went with them to their new forest homes in Indiana. He once said, in refer- ring to the work and enjoyment of children: "I was given the subjects which only a man should undertake at fifteen. I was as well able and as strong for any labor as I have ever been at nineteen, and have been kept so crowded with the work of living that I felt myself comparatively an old man before I was forty." The facts we have gathered and related are meager; but they embrace all of consequence that could be learned in our search in Kentucky. There is enough, however, to re- veal the foundation for the character of Mr. Lincoln. We find more in the life, character, and the study of Thomas Lincoln than has ever been represented. He wae an hon- est, patient, faithful man, who devoted his life's work for the welfare and betterment of his family and friends. He was a very practical anti-slavery believer, who emigrated THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 87 to a State where the question was determined as fully as law could do it on the side of freedom and free labor. He had no desire to emigate to a territory where the slavery question was unsettled, or remain in his own slave State, where he could have found fertile lands on the Ohio River within fifty miles, of the barren lands they were leaving. He was a man of good reputation and influence among his people — something of a leader — so much so that, under his advice and leadership — for he was the chief man in the movement — as many as one hundred in all followed him into the wilds of an unknown and uninhabited country to seek their homes. This, in comparison, makes his work ap- pear strong; for leaders of that early day seldom took half as many with them. Boone did not bring more than fifty with him from Virginia to Kentucky, and did not take a dozen men with him into Missouri. Thomas Lincoln was a strong, resolute man, who was careful and provident for his family and people. He was perhaps more confided in than any other man of his com- munity. Among them all he was always chosen leader. As we have seen, there were few things left for his discretion; hence, under the circumstances and surroundings, he had small opportunity for choice, but in the few left for his judgment his decisions were always fair and lenient. Taken all in all, there is more of him and more to his credit than can be found in the fathers of Penn or Washington, the record of whose lives was fairly well kept in their time. The Kentucky lineage, birth, and early life of Mr. Lin- coln, and the sober, almost melancholy tendency of his fa- ther, and the hard struggle for a living through which they passed, were abiding, conservative forces, which re- mained with them through their lives. These tempered "Abe's" mind for sympathetic feeling and patient, laborious investigation, continuous and persevering thought, and the 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. most careful exercise of his powers before conclusion and judgment. The memory of those early days, his little boyhood's experience, though brief and limited, and the remembrances and traditions of the faithful friends and honest-hearted people of his childhood were always fresh to his mind. They created in him a love — almost a reverence — for the border States and their friendly, homely people. He always reck- oned them as the balancing power in the Nation. He liked them for their soberness, slow and steady habits. He was not only one of them "in appearance and for the purpose of enumeration," but the thoughtful, overgrown boy of seven became one of them in feeling, spirit, and make-up from 1816, when they "moved over to Indiana." In the j^rimitive wilderness, in a wild-wooded country of boundless extent, they found rich, fertile lands and lux- urious growth beyond their expectations, full of tall, finely- shaped, stately-looking trees, through miles on miles of open, unoccupied forests and bramble and brier bush and matted grass so thick and close on the lowland and swampy places that they could not be penetrated without cutting paths and roadways through them. These trees and lower growth were full of animals and birds, and the streams and water- basins were full of fish. The alluvial lands brought forth their abundance, and the denizens of the forest made it a garden of animated nature full of life, affording the early settlers their readiest means of subsistence. With these, "plenty of deer and some bear," it was a paradise for hunters; and with such easy means of sup- port, so ready at hand that there was no doubt of the neces- sities of life being at hand until farms could be "cleared" and the grain and other crops would bring subsistence. In a well-supplied country like this, on Pigeon Creek, near Gentryville, Thomas Lincoln and family, the Hankses, Spar- rows, and some others, who first came with them — about THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 89 twenty, all told — '^settled" and made their homes in this forest. There was nothing unusual about it. Settlements were being made, and a heavy migration westward had been in progress for twenty years or more. Every one of them was prepared for the change and the work in hand as well as could be. They had their axes, guns, and fishing-tackle — all of them articles of prime necessity. Every boy from twelve to fifteen found employment. Thomas Lincoln brought his kit of tools, which were the reliance of the settlement in building their first shelters out of whatever came to hand. They built their cabins out of the most suitable and conveniently-located timber, and made the few articles of household furniture they had to begin with. Cabin-building was a plain, every-day kind of business with the settler, requiring hard, persevering work with his ax in cutting, hewing, and sometimes splitting the logs. The work for all came in rolling, lifting, and raising the pre- pared logs to their place. The corner fitting, the notching or dove-tailing the timber, and making the completed walls, required the most skill. Four to six strong men would often take the trees from the stump, hew the inside surface of the logs, if small, or split and face up the inner side, with one or two good ax-men at each corner. With the neighbor- hood help at what was usually called a '"raising," the work- men often cut the timber and built a cabin as much as sixteen feet square in one or two days, depending on the amount of facing or hewing and the skill of those at the corners. The work of roofing, flooring, making doors and win- dows, came later, and could be carried on by two or three men. These, with the family help, would build a com- fortable cabin home in three or four weeks. The joists were laid overhead, mth usually two or three rounds of logs put above them, and the room next below the raised roof made an upper apartment, or loft, for the boys. 90 ■ ABB AH AM LINCOLN. There was some art in making the roof, to get the cor- rect pitch and angle, and in finishing np the gables and the intricate corners. Sapplings about three inches in di- ameter, or split-out timber of about the same size, was used for rafters. These were cut long, so as to give good projec- tions, in order to protect the mud-plastered walls from the rains and dampness. The clapboards were rived out of the straightest-grained timber, about six inches wide and two and a half feet long. These clapboards had many uses about the houses and other buildings, besides that of roof- ing. Before the days of nailing them on, the boards were held down by heavy timbers pinned at the ends. The floors were made of puncheons, split timbers, or slabs as wide as the logs would work them out, and generally the full length of the room. They rested on the end logs of the cabin and heavy timbers for support. These flooring puncheons were faced and smoothed by an adz when the floor was finished, smooth or rough, level or wavelike, according to the straight or twisted grain of the timber and the skill and labor put on it by the workman. The fireplaces of these cabin homes were always built large and roomy, so that great logs could be rolled into them for ''the backlog," with plenty of room in front of it for small and large wood in such abundance that a log- heap fire was built which would keep the family warm and comfortable for a day at a time through any wintry blast that came. The fireplace was built of stone laid in heavy mud mortar, continued up with split timber, heavily cov- ered out and in with mortar. The hearth was made of the smoothest, largest stone slabs at hand, or with a heavy bed of mortar, which was smoothed to a level. The heat soon burned it to a heavy plate, something like brick, so that it was neat, as well as solid and substantial. In the winter the family gathered around the fire in a circle. The dimension was made to correspond with the THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 91 number, with the cozy chiniuey-corner farthest from the door and outside draft always reserved for grandmother or the sick and feeble. It was in the cabins and around such firesides, in large part, that the distinct independent American character was made, developed, and grew up to such strong and lusty manhood. Based on undeviating moral principles and conduct, it grew and developed and gained such strength as to become a fixed and unsurpassed human quantity, owing much, no doubt, to the controlling and refining influence of family life where the parents, schooled in morals and experience, were always present with the growing members of their families. It was out of homes like these that a long line of he- roes, soldiers, statesmen, and leaders came, to mark out in wonderful careers their service for mankind. There Avere thousands of them, and it appears so far that it needs only cause and opportunity to bring forth men and leaders with as distinct fitness, zeal, and the genius for it, as ever blessed and served the human race. No man can number or enroll those who have thus come and served and passed away. There are among them some like shining stars. We had a host of them in the Revolution. Since then we have had Jackson, Webster, Benton, Clay, Douglas, Houston, Yates, Grant, Thomas, Logan, Sheridan, Farragut, and the great Lincoln — men who have filled the full measure, Americans, positive examples of the triumph of free institutions. In finishing the cabins, the openings between the logs were filled with split timber, called "chinking," securely fastened. Over this, inside and outside, a heavy mortar was plastered in, making a thick, solid wall, impervious to air or moisture. Openings were sawed out for doors and win- dows as it was built up. The doors were usually made of split or hand-sawed boards, hung on wooden hinges, and the famous "wooden latch, with its string or leather strap," hanging outside. The windows were small, often for only 92 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. one small pane of glass. In the earlier days they served as openings for observation and loopholes for rifles in defense against Indians. The further finishing and furnishings were made clumsy or neat by the mechanic, where they were able to employ or get one, or by themselves, according to their skill, and in taste to suit the wish of the inhabitants. In time, as convenience required, other and more commodious cabins were added, when sometimes five of these additions were made, making a comfortable group of farm dwellings, in which good shelter and the best living always abounded, where a cordial greeting and generous hospitality were al- ways extended, as sincere as the house and its caves and cel- lars contained the means and supplies for comfortable liv- ing and the overfeeding that was so commonly indulged in. Before 1860 there were seldom more than two or three tenant farmers to a county in the West, and these were ex- ceptional, whether they were rough and coarsely built, as they all were at first, or better built, "and fixed up" in bet- ter style, first with rough-sawed boards for floors, doors, and ceilings, or the smoothed, planed work that followed, and larger windows. They were suitable for all their wants, warm and habitable; and as industry prospered the people, they grew to be models of comfort and delightful country homes. Better than all, they owned them, and they were in no sense a peasantry or dependent class. Although in their beginnings they lived poorly, and suffered from a thousand times greater exposure and hardship than the laboring peo- ple of Europe, their self-supporting, industrious manner of living made them confident of their rights and equality in law, and gave them the American independence of charac- ter, the fulfillment of their highest desires. These were compensation for their privations and sufferings. As the THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 93 flocks and herds and other possessions of the settlers grew and increased, the}^ built shelters, stables, barns, and hous- ings for their animals, often as good as their own. When the Lincolns and their friends from Kentucky settled on Pigeon Creek, it was as wild a forest of timber and undergrowth as nature made it. There were four or five families of them. They each had their guns, axes, some fishing-tackle, and apparatus. Three of them had a team of two horses and a wagon each, and Thomas Lincoln, be- sides these ordinary equipments, had his kit of tools, which had been recovered with difficulty after falling into the Ohio Eiver. These became of incalculable value in the new settlement, where every one of them was compelled to get to work with all his strength, skill, and ingenuity to build his cabin before the rigors of winter found them unpro- tected; for it was then late in summer. Mr. Lincoln, in relating the little that he remembered of it, said that the families did not have, in animals, prop- erty, and money, more than fifty dollars apiece; yet they were contented and in good spirits, and set about the work of making their homes in the new region with all the eager- ness and industry of Western people; and whatever means they had were used in common, and whatever help their time permitted was freely given others of their little colony in building their cabins, or in the work of making the little clearings for the next year's crop. Thomas Lincoln, being a strong, rugged man, a worker in wood, and builder of cabins in Kentucky, naturally came to be the leader in the arduous labor of building up the settlement. They all worked at it with all the means at hand. They were delayed, and the work crowded them. The few who were able for it were kept busy every day. Some were' delicate, some were sick, leaving not more than three fully able men among them, so that it was two years 94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. before the cabins were floored, doors up and finished, as they should have been had the means and help been at hand as they all wished in the beginning. It has been related that the Lincoln cabin was in this unfinished condition for two years, which is true, as it was of the others. This is accounted for through his generous, helpful nature and the corresponding progress of the work, which was agreed to. The work was carried on as far as it could be for every family. Two of them were finished first, one for Hanks and one for the Sparrow family, be- cause they were more helpless than the Lincolns, some of them being quite sick. In the work of making and building the settlement, Abe was the constant companion and helper of his father. He was only in his eighth year, but his development had been rapid. He was strong, and "had a grip like iron," as Hanks expressed it. There was urgent and pressing necessity for the help of every one. His father, with all his experience, endurance, and strength, was a very much overworked man. It developed that Abe had talents. He improved them, and early in life he learned that he could master any pro- cess of work as well as those much older about him. He became in that work of settlement so skilled in the use of the ax that an authority said that "afore he was twelve he was the best chopper in all these parts, and afore he was fifteen, no livin' man could sink his ax in the wood like Abe." The settlers, in the opening up of the great West to cultivation, were ignorant of the fertility of the wide-open plains, prairies, and open lands along the streams. They were fully possessed of the follies of their ancestors, that the timber and woodlands were always the most fertile and best adapted for cultivation. Fully believing in these opin- ions, they blundered along for several generations on this new continent, just as their forefathers had done for cen- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 95 turies, in devastating the woodlands and sterilizing the hills and valleys of Asia and Europe. The little settlement on Pigeon Creek began making a first "clearing" along with their cabin-building and other work during their first winter. It was a necessity for them; for they had to cut down, grub up, and clear away trees and brush and briers if they got any place for their "garden patches" or a small beginning for a field of grain. Thus it might be said their labor drove them, and every one of them able for work found it and the place where it could not be neglected. Mr. Lincoln often said of these early times that they were all "tired out with hard work, yet they were con- tented, and seldom grumbled," All of them felt it their duty to do all they could; and while he never claimed that he was an industrious boy, still he did have the good sense to see that the condition about them made hard, continuous labor a necessity, and he loved and cared for and respected his parents so much that he took hold as early in his boyhood as he was able, and helped them along in every way he could. They cleared their patches up to about an acre the first year for each family, which was something of an average. The work was very hard to begin with, cutting the timber down and into logs, rolling them into great heaps and burning them, then grubbing up the roots, which, after a few days' drying, were gathered in heaps and burned. So laborious was this work that many able-bodied men spent a whole year clearing up, grubbing, and burning off two acres, except dur- ing their seeding and harvest time. Their clearings, when of an acre or less, were planted about half in Indian corn, which was the staple crop and reliance of the pioneers of the Mississippi basin then, as it still remains. The remainder was planted in cabbage, po- tatoes, onions, turnips, and pumpkins, as these vegetables 96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. were always in demand. They increased their clearings from year to year, as their strength and endurance held out, until they had as much as fifty acres for each family, de- stroying as they did it their finest timber and forests. This work of timber destruction was carried on all over what were then our Western States, with what would now be considered reckless waste, almost a fury, and willful de- struction of valuable property. This was done alongside vast areas of the richest prairie lands ever brought under cultivation in any country. This custom of cutting, logging, grubbing, burning up timber, requiring severe labor, giants for rolling and lifting when they could be found, and enor- mous expenditure in the aggregate, was carried on labor- iously for more than half a century; for burning up our great forests took much time and great strength and en- durance. The finest poplars, oaks, walnuts, and other valuable hardwood trees were cut and heaped and burned, with no better thought of their value and usefulness than we have of the rubbish and debris out of our streets and alleys of to- day. They labored hard and burned up trees and logs, which in a few years would have had more value than their "cleared-up lands," which they further depreciated in drying up the many beautiful little streams, so plentiful and full of life when Boone and such adventurous spirits as he found these wide-stretching woodlands. They builded, toiled, and worked their best, and as well as they knew. Their errors, mistakes, and even their lack of wisdom in that age concerning these and other commonly- understood matters undoubtedly have their counterpart and parallel blunders in the wise and progressive age to-day, when we have just entered upon the new century. Some future philosophers may wonder, when they under- stand it, why English-speaking races wrecked themselves on so old an idolatry as the remolding, setting up, and wor- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 97 shiping of "Aaron's golden calf" in their halls of legislation and all over the land, and compare that with the forest destruction of our fathers. This may be considered too severe now, yet in this century people may have to move under the sun at the equator in a rapid movement for heat and subsistence, because the people of the preceding "busi- ness men's century and age" consumed all the resources of the north temperate zone. At all events, whatever our blun- ders may be, our successors will know of them and tell all about them, as we do of the waste and folly of burned-up forests and dried-out lands. In the Lincoln settlement their customs, manner of liv- ing, and habits were as plain, simple, and generous as they well could be. The streams in their season were full of fish, and for part of the year supplied a good share of their living. The woods were full of the choicest game, and some of it was ready at hand in any season. The hunter backwoodsman who hunted one day in the week, would usually bring in all the fresh meat required by his family. At Pigeon Creek frequently enough for the community was taken, in one day by those who went, once or twice a week. In addition, they tanned the hides and dressed some of them for furs, both of which were put to the best possible uses in the family for shoes, clothing, and house-furnishings, as their neces- sities required. It was not long, however, until dressed skins found so many uses in the households everywhere, and the demand for them became so general, that they could be readily sold or exchanged. With them they bought their guns, ammu- nition, axes, hatchets and saws, cotton yarn, nails and salt, and the needles, pins, and knitting-needles so indispensable. In supplying these articles of every-day use the dried or dressed peltries became one of the best mediums of exchange for the business men of that day. The boy Lincoln was never a hunter or sportsman, or 7 98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, inclined to such occupation or the needless use of the rifle, but always avoided the use of it, and was pleased when some one else would take his place on a hunting expedition. The family, however, kept a good gun, and father and son both knew how to use it well when there was necessity; but no one of the family took to the life of a hunter or trapper, so common in those days when game was so abundant. They both disliked the occupation, and they were always so busy otherwise that they were anxious that others of their community should do the banting and fishing. It took all their labor and energy to earn a living, and be the generous, helpful man that the father was in his close-bound society. Mr. Lincoln, in his busy, active life, sometimes referred to the fishing and hunting of his boyhood. His fishing, he said, was always to get the fish for food, and his hunting was generally to help somebody else who could do the hunt- ing and kill the game, which he never liked, and never did if he could avoid it. Such Avas his childhood nature. He seldom used a rifle while in any hunting party he was with ; nevertheless he was one of the most useful of any of them. His superior skill and strength with an ax or an oar or a gun when need be, his aptitude for emergencies, his good nature and fine companionship, his self-possession and ease in illustrating events and telling a story, his suppleness, activity, and good sense always brought his services into use, and made his company a pleasure to all ; but there was neither sport nor amusement in hunting or fishing for him. WTien the fish were caught or the game killed, they were taken home for use, the smaller fish were thrown back into the stream, and no game was ever shot at or disturbed in wanton sport or a desire to kill. The inside walls and the interior finish of the cabins were rough and unsightly in the beginning, but in the ordinary progress all about them were changed. The walls were smoothed and covered inside. The great, open fireside was THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 99 filled with logs and chips and brushwood, out of which came the cheerful light and warmth that made the cabin cozy, comfortable, and habitable. It was around such firesides that the devoted, patriotic men and women of two gener- ations past grew to such robust maturity in morals and strength that fitted and prepared them to grapple with the monster evils of their time. Conveniences were added little by little, but slow as it appeared, and of necessity had to be, in making a civilized country out of wilderness and plain, where there was three or four times as much work needed as there was strength and capacity of the whole people or any community at hand. The grounds about the home, and its premises, were cleared up, but often some majestic landmarks, the stately old trees of the forest, were left. Trees and vines and fruit-bearing bushes were planted and cared for as well as could be under such heavy labor and perplexing duties. In the settlement of these great Western States there is no doubt that thousands struggled on without the com- forts and conveniences common in older communities; but their exposures and privations were usually of much good in developing strength and character where no one went hungry or suffered for the necessities of life, where the last pound of meal or bacon was cheerfully divided with a worthy neighbor. From the beginning of the century to 1860 a powerful people came to the almost boundless valley, and labored and grew and prospered. They were mighty men, healthy, Apollos in form, strong of arm and body, clear-headed, far- seeing, and intelligent. They knew how to subdue the wild waste-lands and the forests and plains, to build dwellings out of the rudest materials, open roadways across the swamp and level lands, and into and through the dense timber and thickets, where a settler's camp could not be reached nor made urtil the road was hewed out. They learned to build 100 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. bridges and rebuild them, often after every flood-time, how- to plant and sow and reap and increase their crops of grain, and all that was here in such profusion and bounty for man and beast, and to grow cattle and horses and all useful animals by the millions, "on a thousand hills" and plains so vast as to seem billowed, low-rolling oceans of grass. They made their clothing out of the materials at hand, whether it was the skins of animals, or the flax, w^ool, or cotton that came later in succession from their industries and trade. They made the furniture and most of the fur- nishings for their households, all they had in the begin- ning when life to them was so full of burdens, when ease and luxury were unpracticed, conditions altogether unde- desirable in the progress of their plans and purposes. They made many of their building and farming utensils, almost creating the industry of farming and husbandry, as they successfully carried it on, until it has grown to unequaled cultivation and the highest civilization. By the hundred thousand they were bright-minded men, with knowledge and grasp of affairs equal to their high physical powers. Some in the multitudes of this western migration came with the means to get the comforts found in States and settlements further east, but these were scarce. The prevailing conditions were, tliat a free, enlightened people came west in millions, who, with their own hands, industry, and genius, built up in the middle Mississippi basin the most powerful force then or now existing upon the earth. They labored, they prospered, they had abundant re- sources in the surplus products of their fields, their flocks, and herds. These they gathered, garnered, and saved for three generations, until in the aggregate they were a well- supplied, forehanded people, with capacity, enterprise, and mental fitness equal to any undertaking which men could accomplish. It was well that they possessed all these, with physical powers to correspond, and that they had shops THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 101 and factories and farms and endless plains capable of sncli wonderful production; for as the century rolled past its middle, we were plunged into the desperate, inevitable conflict, where every power and resource was strained to its utmost trial to save us. They needed. all these qualifications and abundance, and they used them all in unrivaled strength until men stood aghast at the slaughter, waste, and destruction that wrapped the land in fire and gloom. There was dire necessity pressing upon us, no less than our other exhausting requirements, because it was of the highest importance, that an acknowledged, undisputed leader should appear, who would grow up with us, be trained, seasoned, hardened, and strengthened by the trials, labor, and experience among us, filled with the sympathies and hopes that animated all, strong in all the elements of char- acter that made a righteous, God-loving people, with keen, quickened capacities at their best, to be more thoughtful, masterful, and mighty than any other one, or he could not lead. How could such things be? Where would such a leader come from? jMoses, Luther, Cromwell, Washington, were leaders and reformers, as we have related, as the world knew and believed in 1860. As God is just and loves justice and right, he inspired these leaders of men, and raised them up from among the people, when by education, training, and labor they got the preparation, the only qualifying that could have fitted them for their leadership. Abraham Lincoln became as well fitted a moral reformer as any one of them. The trial before him, the issues in- volved, and the war that was certainly coming, and the mil- lions engaged directly, with the world awe-stricken, waiting the result as if it v/ere the approaching crash of the elements and the wreck of worlds; with liberty-loving people the world over on the side of the Republic; with monarchy and 102 ABB AH AM LINCOLN. caste and aristocracy, from Britain to Monte Carlo, all for slavery, division, and downfall of freedom, against him; in the face of all these, his task was greater than any world's reform leader before him. The destinies of a Nation were never in the hands of a stronger man. His physical strength and manhood gave him power and endurance beyond any one. His intellectual power and equipment was that of a genius, the godlike gift our Father gives some men, so far above our measurement and comparison. "We call it so because its powers and achievements are beyond our knowledge. It is best under- stood in the belief that it is God's inspiration of a soul fully trusting in him. His high sense of honor and his deep moral convictions were so sincere, constant, and true, that no one who ever knew him doubted his faith, honor, and integrity. It is from this plane of reasoning, and in the light of such knowledge, that we must investigate, study, and reason about his life and character, and the men and the issues of the time in which they lived. He was a strong, able leader, as much and as true as any one in history, strong and ^vise and powerful in the cause of the people as their counselor. He was one of them. God made him this in a wonderful Juncture as surely chosen for the work of his life as God creates and prepares men to lead peoples and nations out of bondage into light and liberty. When we take up the man, the cause, and the men with him, through the times in which they lived, the truth will open out in perfect order and develop in regularity and symmetry before us as naturally and in as fitting and timely succession, event following event as consecutively as the unfoldings of life, as unerringly as the seed germinates into the plant, the plant grows into productive life, and matures the ripened fruit. CHAPTER V. IN the summer and autumn of 1818, deep bereavement came to the Lincolns and the little settlement on Pigeon Creek, all or nearly all of whom were from Kentucky and related hj kindred or marriage. One of those highly fatal maladies, quite common in the early settlements of Indiana and Illinois, called "milk-sickness," broke out vio- lently among them. It was so named for want of better knowledge to give it better description for its definition, and because the milk-cows were first affected with it. It was a poisonous disorder, beginning with pain and inflammation of the stomach and digestive organs, running into a low fever and great exhaustion, resembling very much, in a few days after its invasion, the malarial fever so common all over the West. "^Tien it was fatal, in addition to the first effects of the poison, death generally resulted from the de- struction of the assimilative functions of these organs and consequent starvation. The localization of the poison was and remains a matter of doubt. By many observers it was believed to exist in some plant which cattle ate late in the fall when herbage was scarce and dried up. It was believed by others, with as much reason, that it was in the water in the little streams and basins, which were usually low in the fall season. The disease was always milder when the streams were full and the grass was gTeen. Those believing that it was some mineral poison in solution in the water at its low stage that carried and brought on the sickness, could not verify it; for the disease did not have the distinctive symptoms of any 103 104 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. mineral poison. Under the closest observation the cause seemed to be in one or the other, and it may have had its origin in both the herbage and water. It was ordinarily as difficult to locate the suspected spot as it is in any uncertain cause of pestilence. As the cause was so uncertain, no one would damage his property by locating such a plague on or about it without investigation and proof that would make it a reasonable certainty. Suspected localities were occasionally fenced, sometimes with supposed benefits, but as often otherwise; so that, to this day, this pestilence, so deadly in some localities as it became in the ill-fated settlement on the little creek, has left us no better knowledge of the cause of its existence or its waste of life than the presumption that it was a poisonous malady, or may be something of that, and a complication with some malignant form of malarial disease, which latter is caused by some other undiscovered poison. We are toler- ably certain that the malarial poison is developed in the decay and decomposition of vegetable growth and in the eliminated gases, or by the microbic millions generated in these decomposing gases, which, like the "milk-sickness," is a poison which prevails in new settlements, and is often deadly in its effects. There is little doubt that both of these virulent poisons wrought out their terrible destruction not alone, but together, at the little creek. Whether alone or not, the unknown, unlocated pestilence in killing fury came into the quiet Pigeon Creek neighbor- hood when the settlers were neither expecting nor prepared for any unusual sickness. They were without medicines and the ordinary means and supplies, commonly kept in the older settlements, and no physician nearer than thirty miles. In this condition, unprepared for the treatment of such ail- ments, the devouring infection swept down upon them like a demon, and ere the winter of 1818 arrived, one-half of the first twenty from Kentucky were dead and buried, and those THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 105 left were sore and sick in mind and body from the lingering effects of the plague, and worse over their irretrievable losses. Most conspicuous and most loved of all, Nancy Lin- coln, wife and mother, was one of them the father mourned in his sorrow; for she was a dear woman to him, and Abe, the thoughtful, expectant boy, whose quickened life was to see and carry and live through so much of human grief, was thrown into his first profound and lasting one. In that dreary tunber settlement, in the somber October days, when ten of their colony were taken across the dark and turbid river in less than so many weeks, when a loving mother was torn from her somber-minded, disconsolate bo}', he was in his tenth year. He mourned, but he was not hopeless, as he once said, "I knew that my mother was a good woman, and the Father who created such would always care for them." He often said that he could well remember how lonely and cheerless the grave of his mother appeared, and the strong desire he had to have the ceremony of Chris- tian burial nerved him to the task of a long journey in winter to invite a minister, that her life and memory might be respected. In the haste of the awestruck community, when so many were dead and dying, she had been silently laid to rest without rite or observance of any kind. Father and son were as busy as any, where all were overworked and weary with caring and watching from day to day their dear friends as they recovered or passed away. In addition to this, Thomas Lincoln, who has been called "thriftless," with the help of his ten-year-old boy and John Hanks, sawed out by hand the boards and made coffins for all who died, that each victim might have the best and most respectful burial vrithin their power. They grieved over the want of funeral observances, none more than Abe, who, as soon as the endemic was over, made a long journey of sixty miles through the snow and cold 106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. weather of December, afoot, poorly shod in moccasins; but his heart was strong in his work, and it all went well. He secured the services of Eev. David Eikin, an itinerant Meth- odist minister, one of God's pioneers into the forests, who labored hard for the love of men on slender pay, but a sharer in all the settlers had. He came shortly afterwards and preached a feeling and impressive sermon in memory of the departed wife and mother. All were deeply affected, and a whole day was given to the meeting, and not one of those who had died was neglected by the good man in his heartfelt work. Occurrences such as these best reveal and delineate char- acter. The son's affectionate desire was so strong that he willingly undertook a man's work that his mother's memory might be kept sacred in their hearts and respected as it should be, proving his faith b}' his works in his boyhood, building them on an enduring basis — love for his mother, faith in God as he believed, and, as far as his growing mind could reason out the subject, he had faith in the future ex- istence of a beautiful soul like hers. The winter following this appalling sickness and death of half of the brave spirits, that forced the dangers and difficulties of the new settlement, who bivouacked, in the wild woods of Indiana to persevere and build homes, was a long, lonesome, and sorrowful one. It was a terrible afflic- tion to the Lincolns, father and son, and so to others like them, and it was such a severe and irreparable loss to so many of them, such a staggering blow, with so much danger ahead in the unlocated "milk-sickness," that it would have driven the remainder back to the poor hills of Hardin County, had it not been for Thomas Lincoln and John Hanks, resolute men, the main stay and trusted leaders of these sorely-tried people. Nevertheless, grief and sorrow, that was developing the boy's deep sympathy for all who grieved and were heavily THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 107 burdened, burned in his mind so indelibly that they re- mained a part of his nature. No one ever heard him deliver an address, long or short, Avhen it was appropriate, without being impressed positively that his soul was full of human sympathy. The little he was inclined to relate of the dreary winter was that it was a lonely, sorrowful one. By some means, but through his own diligence, he got a copy of iEsop's 'Tables." It was by his mother's attention and his own perseverance that he was able to read at that early age. A little later, in the winter or the next spring, he borrowed a copy of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" — good books for him every way in his care-burdened, thoughtful condition. There was relief in iEsop, and deep reasoning in Bun3'an. Thev were veritable classics, which, with his mother's Bible, were the books on which he laid the foundation for his edu- cation, forming and guiding his strength of mind and char- acter. While all about them was so full of distress, there were also some benefits. It was a school of experience to them and a thousand such other settlements, where the men and women of the wild, unbounded West would need the full instruction and experience that came from work, hardship, disappointments, and losses, where success could only come through the most severe labor, perseverance, and fortitude. In it there was to Abe the distinct and lasting benefit, that more than any other time his inquiring and studious habits were formed. Henceforward he was a student. Without knowing any- thing of formulas or systems, he dived into the heart of subject after subject as they opened to his laborious inquiry. He devoted every spare moment on these three books during the winter, going over them patiently three times each in the close study he gave them. "When his hard day's work was done outdoors, in log- 108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ging, going to mill, or getting firewood, as soon as he got to the house he would take his piece of cornbread and pork in one hand and his book in the other, get down some way before the big log fire, and study and read his books until midnight, often much later as we believed; but as all of us went to sleep early after a hard day's work, we did n't knoAv how late he read. On the next day he was always telling us about what he had been reading. No matter how busy we were, we always listened; for he could always tell a story so cute that everybody wanted to hear it. He could beat anybody arguing, not excepting the preacher, and you know we had Elder Cartwright and some other big men in the Church," This is the substance of John Hanks's recollec- tion of Lincoln's boyhood. In his study, as well as in his observation of ordinary things, he soon became master of all the information at hand, in which he had increasing interest and seemed never to be idle a moment when it was possible to increase his store of knowledge. In a few months after, some other good books came into his possession. Among them he was de- lighted to get copies of "Paradise Lost" and Weems's "Life of Washington." These and those already mentioned were his early text-books, most of his library. He read and studied them with all the application and thoughtfulness of a studious boy, who applied himself to that labor as ear- nestly as that in the field or forest, read and studied them over and over, until he seemed to know every fact they contained, and a great part of all of them by heart. He was a philosopher from the beginning, and as thor- oughly inductive in his methods of reasoning as Lord Bacon. He was in all things a reasoner. He was delighted in con- trasts and analytical discussions before he knew the mean- ing of such terms, while he was a child. He was born to an inquiring, searching form of thought, as much as any one ever was. s THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 109 When at or under seven years, in Kentucky, he was re- turning from fishing with only one fish. Meeting a dis- charged soldier of the War of 1812, he gave it to him at once without a request. When he reached home and his father had learned of the circumstance, he asked Abe, "What reason did you have for olfering your only fish to the soldier?" Abe replied at once, "We must be generous and free with these men; so you have all told me, and it was the best I could do for him when I met him." Thus he was a reasoner and a patriot at seven. The "Fables" of ^sop brought a field of thought to his deeply inquisitive and causative cast of mind, which took firm hold upon him, and marks as well as it can be done the start in the work that made him a reasoner, in practical and humorous story-telling. He could illustrate his thought.- with talent and aptitude for it, in substance, form, and ap- propriateness beyond any comparison. Hence he was always ready with a story or allegory in illustration, which never failed to illustrate. ..^sop, mature as he was, did not draw clearer or more distinct parallels. Later his schooling and early education will be taken up. It has been referred to here principally to fix the period when he took up books and study, the nature of the books, and the lines of knowledge and learning along which his course of study took him; how his wits were sharpened and his mind broadened under his persevering, self-directed efforts. These remained and grew, and his purposes became more firmly fixed than ever to gather information and knowl- edge from every obtainable source as time rolled on. During the same time he borrowed a copy of the Statutes of Indiana from a justice of the peace in the neighborhood, which he studied as diligently as the more attractive books, much to his advantage; for in addition to the statute laws and regulations of the State, which were all instructive to an apt and studious boy, it contained the Declaration of 110 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and that of the State of Indiana. These formed the basis of his legal education, and fix the time when he first began the study of political subjects. When we consider that this boy of ten had mastered his six books better than men usually do, the light begins to break upon us that such a boy grew to be a wonderful man, a leader, and full of the knowledge that leads to wis- dom and righteousness. Many a college-bred lawyer learned this to his astonishment aud regret, who met him in court under the belief that he was "a backwoods country lawyer." The weary winter following his mother's death passed. The spring and summer wore away with no unusual happen- ing, and the dreary home was lonesome and cheerless still, because the gentle, guiding spirit of the one that all loved had departed. With the melancholy tendency so strong and surely increasing at the time, it would be difficult to im- agine or reason out to conclusion what would have been the result if a gentle hand and a loving soul had not taken the place of the departed mother. The Providence that cares for the sparrow shapes our ends, brought them a blessed woman, a real evangel for that sorely-afflicted and tried community and severely-bereaved family. She was a good, strong-minded woman, kind and dear to the heart of Abraham Lincoln, for she was the wise and loving woman under whose faithful training and ex- ample the great American waxed strong. In ilTovember, 1819, Thomas Lincoln and Sarah Bush Johnston were mar- ried, after the short period of one or two days' courtship and preparation, in the neighborhood of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, the old home settlement of the Lincolns. The preparations were delayed in order to get the furniture, household goods, and all the little convenience-making be- longings of the former Mrs. Johnston ready for immediate removal with herself to the desolate home in Indiana. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. HI Whatever other considerations of old acquaintance, senti- ment, and the fitness and compatibilities of the people may- have been that led to this marriage, there can be no doubt that the lonely home of the Lincolns and the well-being of the sad, disconsolate boy depended on the labor and loving care of such a woman, and that she and all that fortune favored her with were sorely needed for both the physical and moral well-being of the family and the life and progress of the boy. It was well that she was "a handy forehanded woman," and that her house was full of indispensable ar- ticles, every one of which came to be useful and a relief in the narrowed domestic economies of the pioneer settlement. It took all of the two days or more to get them packed and boxed and in shape for the journe}'. They secured the largest-boxed wagon and four of the strongest draft horses, and with three or four saddle-horses for such as could ride on horseback, the second migration was made. Although there had been fears of the sickness and mortality at their new home in Indiana, a number of their old friends and neighbors went with them. Sarah Bush and Thomas Lincoln were friends and neigh- bors before the first marriage of either of them. When they became single again by the death of husband and wife, it was believed by all their friends that their marriage was a wise and prudent one, and that the rapid return and removal to Indiana was a work of saving necessity. By her former marriage there were two daughters and a son, who went with them. Her goods and furnishings and supplies brought some- thing of use and comfort to all; and better, her genial, kind heart brought confidence and happiness to the desolate home. In progTess of her thrifty, housewifely cares and at- tention, she reanimated and brought back their persevering spirit, that led them into the wilderness to seek their homes. It was not long until work and economy brought better con- 112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ditions under the direction of motlierly sense and energy that made things go. Her coming worked out a little revolution in the family. Many believed so in the settlement. The departed were in no wise forgotten nor their memory neglected, but work and thoughtful care for the living required all their ener- gies. The preparations for muter, the gathering of food and fuel, and the housing and clothing set them all at work, and action prevailed where father and son had been mourn- ing out their days. They were brought face to face by her teaching and example to the best they could do in the struggle for existence. It was not strange, but a natural result, and what was to be expected that Abe, bright- minded boy as he then was, whose chief delight was to read and study, would arouse from his overladen burdens and receive a new and gladdening inspiration from this good, noble-minded woman. Momentous events were culminating and crowding along fast in those days. The boy was to grow in strength and wisdom and knowledge, where this woman was to lead him in the groundings of character on granite-like foundations. So firm and immovable were these laid, that neither adver- sity nor prosperity could deviate him one moment from his purposes. By her teachings she fixed his faith in his Maker so firmly that all the powers of darkness and hell could not prevail against him. He never forgot the work of his pa- tient, devoted stepmother, "who did more than any other person to make a man of me," as he often expressed it. The cabin home became at once the object of unremitting care, attention, and labor. Her mind was constantly em- ployed in designing and maturing the best that was possible with the means at hand. Her hands were scarcely ever idle, and the results of her superintendence and care were easy proof of it. That her work and ingenuity were the saving THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 113 demands of that backwoods cabin if its people were to live, went without saying. As soon as she was settled in her new home the place was righted and put in order, inside and out. She was a day-and- night destroyer of dirt and filth and the nests of vermin or insect-breeding plagues. The home, though plain and made at best of rough, unsmoothed boards, was neat and clean, and though its inmates were clad in "homespun linsey and jeans," they were always spoken of as "tidy, likely folks, whose wimmin did a sight of sewin' and mendin' and per- vidin' for winter." In their persevering work after she came, the home was fitted up with the necessities and all the comforts which their clever minds and busy hands could devise and carry on. Work was found for every one of them, healthy, in- vigorating exercise and labor that was to bring their living, their food, their clothing, and the warmth and cheer about the fireside, and make them strong, healthy men and women for the world of work before them. In the routine of their work there was little variety or relaxation; not enough, but which they supplied as well as they could with hope so strong that it became ambition. This and their splendid energies that came from healthy living helped them forget the sameness of their daily toil and endurance, that was training and developing a generation of men and women who were to do as much of the world's work for humanity as any generation since "the morning stars sang together." They tilled their small fields or clearings with industrious •care, and increased them as ability for the work and op- portunity came. They planted their crops, and sowed their grain of corn and wheat and oats, or rye or buckwheat, with increasing attention and regularity; and so of the vege- tables and "garden truck," potatoes, turnips, sweet-pota- toes, cabbage, pumpkins, squashes, onions, peas, and the 8 114 ABB AH AM LINCOLN. ad infinitum of the field and garden. They cultivated, plowed, and tended them with the best implements at hand — often rude, rough ones of their own make — through the spring and summer. In the fall they gathered their re- maining crops, as through the summer they had harvested their grain. The surplus was set aside and sold as time and necessity required or provided some kind of market; but the greater share^ — all they needed for themselves and for the generous hospitality maintained in the settler's home — was stacked and cribbed and buried, and kept in the best possible condition for use and disposition. The cabin was improved and bettered, doors were hung and repaired, floors were laid below and above, a stairway was built, and the upper half -story was made available for use. The increased family required more room. Other cabins were built on and connected with the first one; and as there were more hands, and stronger ones, to help than when Thomas Lincoln built the first, they could use their tools to better advantage. They kept their crosscut and whipsaw constantly going with two sons and several of the colony, who repaid help for help. They finished their build- ings, made fioors and doors and finishings out of hand- sawed boards; and the tables and cupboards and shelves were planed and smoothed, the first in the settlement. The home was made more comfortable and roomy with all the articles they knew how to make that were used in their plain domestic living; and some iron, steel, and wooden kitchen utensils were added by Mrs. Lincoln. She brought beds and bedding and home-made clothing within their reach. Thus new life and better conditions came about. All were interested because all had contributed the best their hands could do. The work kept on under the directing mind and busy hands that wrought out at least a comfortable living in place of despair and desolation. These are strong words; THE MEN OF HTS TIME. 115 and the conditious represented were serious, but not more than the reality before the father and son. They were without a liome or home comforts when the blessed good woman came over from Kentucky just in the nick of time, and saved them. There was little change as the time rolled on in the timbered liome. They avoided "milk-sickness" by care- ful fencing off the suspected "licks" where the cattle drank and pastured in the dry fall seasons; thus affording proof there, as elsewhere, that with close attention the dangerous places could be isolated. It was the same there as in many other places, that the experience came in severe losses and misfortune. They were not able to protect themselves as well from the all-prevailing poison of malaria so com- mon in the settlement of any new region, especially so in the rich alluvial lands of Central Indiana and Illinois, where malarial complaints appeared in greater or less severity every year. ISTot long after his second marriage, Mr. Lincoln joined the Baptist Society that was formed in their neighborhood. The family attended at the log "meeting-house" which they built there, as long as they remained. The work of farm- ing and making their living, educating and training the children to useful work of some kind, went on from year to year in much the same way, with little to interest them more than the increasing movement westward. They were kind, friendly people, and, like other families so situated, dispensed a generous hospitality in those early days when it was common to welcome a houseful of friends, before the mad rush for wealth and display had cut so deep into our friendly social life. In 1825, at about sixteen years, Abe found employment on the Ohio Eiver, not far from their home, for a few months, at six dollars a month. This was his first work away from home, when he took up the hard labor of run- 116 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. iiing a ferry-boat across the river for about sixteen hours a day. He did so to get a wider knowledge of the country and the people near them at least. The river was even at that day full of Western emigrants; and many were crossing over from Tennessee and Kentucky in search of more productive lands. This experience was valuable; for he saw a great many people in the time, and his small earn- ings furnished the, home some useful articles, some writ- ing materials for his own use, and some little things for ap- parel, and the best sight of the world that he had had up to that time. We will have occasion, as we proceed to take into care- ful consideration his schooling, education, and training- — for it must come in so many ways — that a single reference would be no more than opening the subject. We have seen that at nine to ten he had studied and understood what he studied, and never gave up the work until he did under- stand. At ten he had studied and memorized a great part of his mother's Bible, iEsop, "Pilgrim's Progress," "Paradise Lost," "Life of Washington," and the Statutes of Indiana. This was surely progress, and for a boy of twelve it was as much, or more, of real learning than thou- sands of accredited scholars now know or understand. Prom the time that his mother taught him his alphabet and how to read, which must have been as early as his fifth year, in Kentucky, he was never idle or unemployed when he could get a book. We can understand something of his incentive and determination to know by his walking several miles to a justice's office, that he might spend an hour or two going over as dull and uninteresting a subject as the Statutes and law forms kept by a magistrate. He sometimes got the loan of the book for a few days. Some of his biographers have been wise enough to tell us that he took up books and studies, not that he might become learned and useful, and acquire knowledge for the love of THE MEN OF HI 8 TIME. 117 it, but as a mechanic does his tools — that he might be able to better his condition. There is no wonder that many people in various parts of the world stand in doubt as to the knowledge and learn- ing of Mr, Lincoln, when such botchery and misinforma- tion have been written, bound in books, shelved, and labeled as history. It seems that there are schoolmen from uni- versities — not moldering away like the old monasteries, but perhaps more antiquated, if possible, in ideas — who affect to believe that a boy of nine studied the Bible, ^Esop, Bunyan, Milton, some biography, statutes and legal forms, without notable intellectual capacity. Harmful as such veneered ignorance is, and delusive as it will be to many, their deception is as nothing alongside of those journeymen writers who, although they often saw him, never knew his attainments and capacities, or ever looked into the won- derful soul of Abraham Lincoln. He had some schooling in Kentuck}^, attending short terms when teachers held winter schools at Elizabethtown and Hodginsville: two or more, one Riney's, the other Hazel's, and at least three in Indiana before he was twelve, namely Dorsey's, Crawford's, and Swaney's, attending each as well as he could through a winter's term. He was a favorite with all his teachers, and the most diligent, attentive boy in any school. Hanks often said that "Thomas Lincoln lumped his schooling at a year, but it was more, and that Abe always went to school as long as they could teach hira anything." As we proceed, it will be plain enough that boy, man, and leader, he was one of the most studious, and that by reason of patient study and persevering labor he became one of the best-informed men of those among whom he lived and agreed or contended with. A learned or educated man is not a known and fixed standard or quality. A collegiate or academic course will train and discipline the mind. It is useful, and should 118 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. be every one's possession who can get and master it; but education is the work of a lifetime. "We want to begin with exact knowledge of how Mr. Lincoln's mind was trained and started on the road to knowledge, follow him along step by step, through event after event in his illus- trious career, where virtue, knowledge, and strength were elements to the end. The beginning was made. His mother was his first teacher, and the Bible was his first text-book, and held its place in his mind throughout his life. His writing and spelling were carefully done, and accurate, and remained so. He was clear, exact, positive, and strong in the use of language. As he grew, he trained himself in these until he came to a style, force, and elegance that resembled the reasonings of Job and the infinite beauties of the Psalms more than any other forms. His methods of study and arrangement of subjects were regular. His phraseology was selected in careful estima- tion of all the shades of meaning he desired. His points and predicates were keen, incisive, and strong, and the force and energy of expression M'hich he always sought was anal- ogous in his mind to the powerful work of his hands. Thus he began and learned, using all his means in application, study, and thought, and so he perseveringly continued, al- ways seeking the instruction, advice, and help of the bright- est, wisest, and most learned people about him, so candid and sincere that he laid no claims to scholarship, although he acquired and possessed the knowledge of the school- men, worked out through his own laborious system of study. In his almost faultless form he wrought out periods of sentiment, pathos, and patriotism that will live with the nation and its literature — beautiful thoughts, so richly clothed in harmony and force that a new world makes classic that which was not born to die. The ablest men and THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 119 scholars of his time would have held it an honor to help him; but the heart and hand that could lead the people was inspired to master and express his work and purpose in thought and passion that was his, that will be burned into men's minds through centuries till all men are free. During the high water in the spring of 1838, Mr. Gentry employed Abe, then past nineteen, to accompany his son on a trip with a flatboat loaded with provisions down the Mississippi River, the surplus productions of the region, to market. They were to dispose of their load to the best advantage, and to do so they were to stop at all the towns and landings on their way to New Orleans for final desti- nation as it became necessary. The voyage was successful in every way. The cargo was profitably traded and sold and managed to the entire satisfaction of Mr. Gentry, who complimented the boys on their success. This journey was a school of observation and experience to any man at the time. The rivers were full of the traffic and commerce of the countrj^, as there were no railways west of the Alleghan}' Mountains up to 1840. And all the Western commerce was upon the rivers. There were a few steamers and fiatboats, barges and lesser craft in in- creasing numbers, as they passed down towards the Gulf. The rivers were full of emigrants pushing westward in search of homes and better lands. These multitudes were a source of interest to every one, surely so to an inquisi- tively-turned boy like Abe. At New Orleans he saw the people and commerce of the outside world. It was small then, compared with other ports and its own importance since; but there were people and ships and business with other nations that awakened his mind in many ways to a broadened and wider concep- tion of our country and its affairs. Above all, the most striking revelation, the deep impression on his mind, that lasted his lifetime, was what he saw of slavery in the city, 120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ' on the vessels, along the wharves, at the auction-blocks, and in the slave-pens. He saw men, women, and children worked, driven, and lashed like oxen, treated like beasts of burden, and, worse than he had known of in his Kentucky and In- diana homes, subject in every way and all the time to the will and control of beastl}^, passionate men, whose deviltry and lust were matched in brutal strength and debaucheries. He saw families put up for sale to the highest bidder, or separated and sold as cattle in the market. He saw what no civilized people, or half-civilized, should permit to exist for one moment of time, the slave- pens — polluted dens of filth, degradation, and iniquity so deep that the Negroes' life had no protection outside of its money value. When that was gone, which happened whenever they were too sick or infirm to sell, murder was as common as robbery, which was a petty offense when com- mitted against a Negro. He saw with his own eyes these horrid slave-pens, where men and women cried for poison, where an old, bright-eyed woman cried: "Let me outen dis den bb de wickud, whar I kin wa'k inter de watah ob de ole Massasipy Eibber, an' die in its bressud busum. List'n to de words ob dis pore ole wuman, Lor', an' let me go!" He saw vice so low as to be without a rival. The tragedy of slavery before him in diabolical review was proof that it "was the sum of all villainies." He saw and knew that a hell existed and was thriving in New Orleans — no mat- ter what about it elsewhere. There he made his promise to God, that "If I live, and as I do live, I will use all the strength of my mind to the best advantage for the abolishment of this withering, damnable curse." These were brave, blessed words, which, through a lifetime, he fulfilled, amidst difficulties and be- setments, in devotion and final determination and triumph, such as could not have been achieved by any other man of his time. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 121 The question is pertinent, Did this revolting sight and experience come as an ordinary experience, or was the cause of his seeing this and the sacred promise of the giant, impressionable youth deeper-seated in the plans of Him that rules the destinies of men? Later it will be seen that a time did come to him when he was impressed with the sense of a great duty resting upon him. The voyage down the river and the return, part of which thev made afoot, were of incalculable value. He had seen much. He had been on the ground that General Jackson and his hastily-gathered volunteers had made memorable and historic to Americans. He had passed his boyhood. He had seen success, a world of striving, busy people. His ambition was in a new way. He returned home full of the purpose to find occupation on the river, so full of life and activit}^, if his father would yield his consent; but the father reasoned Abe out of the plan, and his wise coun- sel prevailed, so that Abe did not return to the river for work, which he could easily have found because of his strength and cleverness as a boatman. In the fall of 1829 his cousin, John Hanks, for whom Abe had warm friendship, gathered up his family and all they had into a two-horse wagon, and pushed westward as far as Macon County, Illinois. He believed that the Lincolns could do better there than it was possible for them in Indiana, so that later in the same fall he made them a return visit, and urged them to make the change. He had been so sure of their coming that he had entered and held a claim for them, on which he had made the im- provements necessary to hold it. Thus, led by another event that was made for them, they, too, gathered all their belongings, and journeyed westward in 1830, joining John Hanks ten miles east of Decatur, on the Sangamon Kiver. Their worldly posses- sions were small, as were those of many generous-hearted 122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. settlers in those days; but they thrived and were seldom hungry in a land as fertile as Egypt. Here they prospered in business, with a currency part of which was wolf-scalps and 'coon-skins, of more "intrinsic value" than the paper dollars which men are killing themselves to get these later days. The Lincoln family left Indiana without regret. It had been the field of their incessant and persevering labor for about fourteen years, where, by hard labor, they had expected to build up and eventually own homes of their own. They would probably have succeeded if they could have reached the reward of the hardest toil men could endure. Their labor was like that of those all about them for a generation: clearing land where it was extravagant waste and destruction to clear it, while at the same time the level plains and prairie-lands, which were ready for imme- diate cultivation and use, were neglected. It was not until after 1840 that men believed prairie-lands could be success- fully cultivated, so that John Hanks, in 1829, making the best selection for the Lincolns, selected a place for them in the timber. The location was a very good one. After years of hard grubbing it made a small farm, though the prairie lands, which they avoided, would have made them independent in a few years. Wisdom is of slow growth; and they, like all before them, settled in the timber, to ''clear out" an- other farm, as they had already done in Kentucky and In- diana, with such loss of time and labor that it kept them poor. In the fall of 1830 they packed all of their household goods and wares into a large, rough-boxed country wagon, which Avas drawn by two yoke of oxen, and emigrated about one hundred and fifty miles northwestward. There were Thomas Lincoln and wife, her two daughters and families, who were married in Indiana, Mrs. Lincoln's son, and Abe — TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 123 six of them — besides three children. They had some horses and cattle, which were taken with them. They were leaving Indiana after fourteen years' hard work in clearing up a farm of over twenty acres, with little more of store and property than they brought with them from Kentucky; but they had reared their children with good habits, ready for honest labor, healthy, strong, and rugged, which was doing well. The farm and cleared lands of over twenty acres fell back to Mr. Gentry. Their payments, though long-con- tinued, did not pay the purchase price and all the interest. When they concluded to go further west, there was no other purchaser than Gentry. Tliie land and the improvements and the benefit of their labor of clearing it, if it was a benefit, went to him at the price he was willing to allow. The settlement, notwithstanding their fourteen years of saving economy and grinding toil, left them no more than his tenants. This example of one in a thousand shows how well prop- erty is protected in our laws and customs, and yet how ten times the value of the land may be paid and piit upon it, and still, if the full purchase price, with all the accruing interest, is not discharged, no vested right is acquired, not even in the work of building and paying for a home- stead. The value of the land which the Lincolns had from Gentry was not above two dollars an acre when they arrived, nor more than five when they left it — forty acres, worth eighty dollars at first, two hundred dollars at the close. Thousands of settlements such as the Lincolns made come and pass unnoticed, while we truly bemoan the fate of evicted Irishmen on their native sod. The journey of men, women, children, and all they had was made in easy progress in some two weeks or more, and they were all happier and better contented when they reached the new settlement and joined Hanks on the Sanga- 124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. mon Eiver — none more so than Abe; for they were always friends. There was one incident of the migration which Mr. Lin- coln always remembered, to which he sometimes referred. His stories always delighted an audience. The feeling one had after the story was told was pretty well described by a friend who, on being asked, "How did you like Lincoln's story in his address last night?" replied, "Why, I've been wanting to hear him tell it over ever since." In a speech delivered in Chicago early in the stirring debates over the "Kansas-Nebraska Bill" in 1854, an old friend and associate of the Whig party, to which they belonged, rose in the hall and informed Mr. Lincoln that "Mr. Blank, who is an able man and an old-line Whig, stands neutral on the great question of slavery extension, now agitating the country. If he is present, I hope that he may be aroused to a sense of duty in this great crisis." Mr. Lincoln, with that infinite expression of humor which neither pen nor pencil can describe, said: "This reminds me of an accident that happened when we came to Illinois in the fall of 1830. The weather was cold for the season. It was in November, cold enough for ice to freeze every night, and we were not as warmly clad as people are these days; but our work kept us warm usually by keeping us busy. In an accident on the way I lost my trousers, which were so torn as to be useless. This was a misfortune indeed; for I had no other pair, and it would have taken a day or two to make any sort of ones for me, as we were moving along. No other man's or boy's clothing would fit the long, lean stripling of a boy which I was. The predicament was necessitous: trousers of some sort had to be found, for I was shivering, with the torn ones not half covering my limbs. My good mother ransacked the wagon, and found an old pair of my father's. They THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 125 were better than the torn ones, and were drawn on over them. The legs of the old ones were cnt off below the knees, and that was the best that could be done for trousers for me until a pair could be made. After all that ingenuity could do, my legs were only half clad. My father was al- most a foot under me in height, and his legs were shorter in proportion. His trousers came only a little below my knees. My shoes were low, and though I had good, warm, woolen socks of my mother's knitting, my shanks were thin and the socks were loose and large. "I walked often through tangled brush along the road- side as I drove the oxen. The trousers were of little use as covering below my knees, and the socks slipped down on my ankles, and my long shins were neutral, neutral ground in the frosty November air; and I there learned by experi- ence the trials and discomforts of neutrality and the un- pleasant situation of neutral ground or neutral space. I am sincerely sorry, and know that I can sympathize with our friend of the good old days when we were WTiigs, as we followed those truly great leaders, Webster, Clay, Taylor, and Scott. I hope that he will leave his doubtful neutral ground, and join us in the great cause of the rights of men and human liberty, and not be freezing as my lean shanks did." Mr. Blank came up to the platform after the meeting, shook Mr. Lincoln's hand in a sort of "conversion to the faith," and remained one of his most devoted friends and supporters to the end. When they arrived in Macon County after the one hun- dred and fifty miles' journey, they found that John Hanks had cut and hauled the logs and some lumber; for there was a sawmill not far from them on the river. With the help of Hanks and the party of six men they were not long in building cabins; first one for Thomas Lincoln, and for 126 ABFAHAM LINCOLN. the other families afterward. They were all hard-working, persevering people. They kept to their labor until all were comfortably housed in their new cabins. Fuel was hauled in, as the weather was getting cold. It was well that they got through with the building and fuel preparation early in December; for the winter of 1830-31 proved to be the hardest, longest, and had the most snow that had ever been known; and it has been designated ever since as "the cold winter." A heavy snow fell about the middle of December. Fu- rious storms and more snow followed for two to three weeks, during which time the people all through their scat- tered settlements were kept close about their cabins and barns to save themselves and the little live stock they had. The snow reached a depth of five feet, much deeper in the little valleys and where it made drifts. The severe cold continued, and paths had to be dug about their premises. The snow packed, and roads were made almost as solid as ice, and so remained until April, two weeks after the snow had melted from other places. It was so cold, and the deep snow lay so long that three- fourths of the game perished in that dreadful winter. To the Lincolns and those with them in their new settlement it was one of the severest trials of their lives, as it was to all in the thinly-settled State, whose population was one hundred and sixty thousand at the time. During that severe winter, Abe, with John Hanks help- ing him — who, in proof of good faith, helped all winter — split the rails, cleared the land, and fenced the field with the famous "walnut rails," the small, fifteen-acre farm for Thomas Lincoln, his first home and farm in Illinois. The trees were large and beautiful, and they disliked to cut them; but it was the best and most conveniently-located place for the field, and they were selected. It came about in the forest destruction and waste of timber before they THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 127 would risk crops on the rich alhivial prairies, that this par- ticular destruction and these "walnut rails" were profitable far above the value of the land; but not to the Lincolns. When John Hanks walked into the State Convention in the earh^ summer of 1860 at Decatur, ten miles from the old farm, with two of those same rails on his shoulders, the Convention rose to their feet, stood on the chairs and benches, filled the windows and platform, went wild over their great State, "Honest Abe Lincoln," and the "walnut rails." The Convention enjoyed the most glorious hero- worshiping, applauding ten minutes, ever had in any political Convention within our knowledge. The whole body of them resolved to go to Chicago and make the Illinois rail- splitter "our candidate" for the Presidency. The world heard of these rails, and they rose to ten dollars a rail, and sold fast at that, until the market was oversold, and several farms had lost their walnut fencing. So many of Mr. Lincoln's friends — men who had known him intimately for years — were connected with the episode of the rails from the beginning, that he disliked to say any- thing about it, and never did publicly; but he was a sin- cerely candid and truthful man, so that, when he learned how rails were selling, he sent for a friend who he knew could stop it, and said: "I have felt that this thing was overdone from the start, but because so many dear friends have been concerned in it, I have submitted; but now I am sure it ought to be stopped; there are too many 'walnut rails' for sale. It is too much of a strain on the old fence." The rail-selling was soon properly restricted. The Lincolns, and those with them, endured a very hard winter. It was much colder than they were used to or had ever experienced in Indiana, which was better protected in those days with its heavy forests, whereas Illinois, with its wide prairies, was exposed to the sweep of the northwest blizzards, as it is now, where the temperature may fall. 128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. in their sweep, as much as fifty degrees in a single day. This, "the hard winter of 1830-31," should not be confused with "the winter of the sudden change in 1836," when the temperature fell sixty degrees in a few minutes. Many were frozen, some died, thousands of animals perished, some were frozen in the mud, swine piled on each other in heaps, and were choked and frozen, with sheeted ice all over them ; and thousands of wild birds and fowl perished, flying, when struck by the blizzard of rain and snow, which froze as it fell. The work of clearing the fifteen acres in that long, cold winter was hard, continuing labor, ten to twelve hours a day, as long as they could see; but it took labor such as this, with unyielding determination, and with rude tools, implements, and appliances, which were the best and all that could be had, to open up the farms of our early pio- neers, who laid the foundations for the amazing develop- ment and civilization to-day. It was well that these two axmen — Lincoln and Hanks — cut and slashed the walnut trees so lavishly through that cold winter; for in that way they got the fuel that made the roaring fires, the piles of burning logs that kept them all warm through it. In 1830 the population of Illinois was heaviest in the counties along the Ohio, the Mississippi, as far north as Quincy, and several smaller rivers, when two-thirds of the people lived below the line of Springfield, running east and west. The first capital town was Vandalia, sixty-five miles southwest of Springfield. The first was then near the center of population. Fayette County, in which it was situated, had 2,704. Sangamon County, in which Spring- field is located, had at that early day 13,960. The fine timber and the river, which was then a much more impor- tant stream than ever afterwards, attracted many emigrants. Macon County, in which they first settled, had 1,122. Coles County, in which the family made their permanent home THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 129 later, was not then organized. Several counties along the eastern border, as far north as Vermilion, which had 5,836, were among the best settled; but the northern half of the State was the most sparsely-settled until as late as 1835. From that date, however, a large emigration came in, swell- ing to the moving multitudes who have been streaming into the great West ever since. CHAPTER VI. SPRINGFIELD was made the county-seat of Sangamon County, one of the finest bodies of land in the State, about 1820. John Kelly, a venturesome, roving de- scendant of the Green Isle, had settled about the center of the county on Spring Creek, a small stream running into the Sangamon River near there. When the commissioners met to locate the county-seat, they found that Kelly had the only shelter in the neighborhood. Besides, he was such a Jolly, good-hearted fellow, and entertained them so well, that they located the county town and the eventual State capital on his claim at Spring Creek, naming it Springfield. They also authorized the building of a court-house and jail. Kelly, being the oldest inhabitant, and a "promoter" even at that early day, took the contract, and built the two log cabins that were used for those purposes for many years, at the moderate cost of one hundred and thirty dol- lars; a large sum of money, too, when corn was five cents a bushel and hogs no more than one dollar and fifty cents apiece. When Kelly made his improvement, because of the fine grass and the cool spring-water, it was very attractive to deer and other game. He often killed as many as three to four deer from the door of his cabin in one day. Wild tur- keys, geese, ducks, and the large pheasants or prairie-chick- ens, were in such abundance that until the severe winter spoken of there was wild game in supply far beyond the wants of the settlers and the Indians still remaining after the War of 1812. 130 THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 131 The sudden change of December 20, 183G, was one of the most remarkable phenomena in severity and sudden- ness in our extremely changeable climate. One woman related that she stepped to her kitchen door to empty a basin of distiwater, moderately warm. As she opened her door, a piercing blast of freezing air took basin and water from her shivering hand, overturning them, and carrying them some twenty yards, while the water was frozen to ice like hail, and rattled on the ground as it fell. The geese, chickens, and all manner of fowls, walking through the wet, muddy barnyards, were caught and frozen in their tracks, where they had to be chopped out very soon or perish, which thousands of them did in that terrible freeze. This frightful winter storm came about four o'clock in the afternoon, and continued its frigid destruction through- out the night, with increasing coldness and a wind which no animal could face for five minutes and live. One said that "zero went down to nowhar;" another, that "things kept cracking and breaking all around me as if the timber was all a-breakin' to pieces and fallin' all around us." Another said that he was only a few hundred yards from his house, chopping, in his shirt sleeves, when it came with a terrible wind and the roar of a tornado. He ran to his house with all his speed and energy, but he was knocked down twice by what appeared furious blasts loaded with ice and hail; and when he reached home, he fell on the floor, almost lifeless, with both hands, his ears, nose, and face badly frozen — all in five minutes. They had few thermometers of any kind, consequently the change was estimated. There had been no severe winter up to the time. There had been some frosts, and there had been some ice the night before; but the ground was muddy, and the streams had not been frozen over when the great blizzard came; and the next day there was ice six inches thick on the running water in the streams. 132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Dr. Morean, in Springfield, had a thermometer, and tried to measure the fall of temperature. He related that ''I heard the whizzing of the storm, wrapped up hurriedly, hung my thermometer on the open porch, when it marked about forty degrees Fahrenheit. In the few seconds I watched it the mercury sank below zero. The furious blasts drove me in. I returned again in a few moments, when I heard the broken thermometer rattling over the frozen ground. The air seemed so terribly cold, and the winds in such a tempest, that I guessed it at another fall of fifty degrees. I fully believed that the temperature fell as low as thirty- five to forty degrees below zero in less than half an hour. Everything about us corroborated it. Some mercury, which freezes at forty-two degrees below zero, was frozen solid next morning in a small bottle I had on the outside of my window." One man on horseback, two or three miles out near Clinton, in DeWitt County, had a terrible experience, and barely escaped with his life. He was on the open prairie when he heard the roar of the storm. He turned his horse from facing it, and sought shelter under a little rise in the ground and some heavy grass. He saw some animals fall not far away, when, they were stricken with the storm, as though they had been felled with an ax. At this he jumped from his horse, which soon fell on him, stunned and dazed, as the others appeared to be. He was lying on the windward, between the horse's legs, which gave him some protection. He soon realized that the horse was about dead, and that he was getting dizzy and stupid — sure signs, as he realized, that he was freezing. He was aware that his situation was desperate, and, without being able afterwards to tell just how he accomplished the work in his almost lifeless condition, but, having a large hunter's knife, he disemboweled the horse, and crawled into the still warm cavities of its thorax and abdomen. It THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 133 was well that his friends made search as soon as they could wrap themselves to breast that awful storm. They found him about nightfall, when the wind had ceased a little, in some two hours, more dead than alive. By persevering work and skillful management he recovered. His clothing was cut and sliced off. He was rubbed and dried with ice applied to his face and extremities, carefully used, to save them. He lost part of his hands and feet, but lived for many years, a relic of the furious storm in the "sudden change." It is one of the sad remembrances of my boy- hood to have seen and talked to this badly-crippled man, "who lived after he was cut out of a frozen horse." In the severe weather that followed this storm the iiround was covered with ice for weeks. Deer and animals of all kinds perished in many places; for there was neither food nor water left for subsistence, and the little game that was left from the previous hard winter of 1830-31 was caught easilv, or died from starvation. One humane incident following this storm deserves to be remembered. While the deer were chased, run down, and killed for their skins, John Weedman, Sr., one of the earliest settlers of DeWitt County, made a deer-park of some forty acres, built it hurriedly, and strengthened it when time and opportunity came. He, with two or three of his oldest sons, of whom there were ten altogether — hardy, athletic men — scoured the prairies about them, and brought into their park over two hundred chased and starv- ing deer. They kept them in the beautiful forest park for several years near Farmer City, where thousands of people came and saw the fine herd of clean, neat-limbed animals — the prettiest of the wood and field. They thrived and dlH well. They bred and multiplied, and were kept for fresh meat as occasion required, well fed and well cared for; but iu this, as in many other things, nature has its compensa- 134 ABE AH AM LINCOLN. tions. These pretty deer, the nice herd that came in a storm, went away in another storm, and vanished. A tornado-like storm in the summer along in the forties came unexpectedly. The rails were old, and a break was made in them by the tempest, and the deer all escaped. The Weedmans caught and killed a few, but did not recover enough of them to justify keeping them. Most of them dispersed in the storm. Few were ever heard of afterwards. If the kind-hearted example of "Uncle Johnnie Weedman" had been generally pursued, we could have preserved thou- sands of the useful, fair, and handsome animals of our forests and plains, and we would have been a kinder-hearted people, as he and his patriotic sons were, perhaps, by rea- son of this. In the early settlement of Central Illinois, the region in which Mr. Lincoln grew so rapidly to favor and a well- rounded manhood — the Sangamon Eiver country — was made up principally of small towns and scattered farms on the highest land in and along the borders of the timber. It is a low, level basin, which at that time was more than half covered with water for several months every year, and in "wet years" all the time. There were great stretches of swampy lands on both sides of the Sangamon River through several counties, and the same conditions existed further east along the headwaters of the little streams in parts of Champaign, Vermilion, Edgar, Coles, and what is now Douglas, Counties, with abundance of water and many natural reservoirs throughout these level plains. The Sangamon Eiver was relatively an important stream, so much so that up to 1835-40 the people believed that with small expenditure it could be made one of the useful waterways for the interior of the State, and ren- dered navigable to some point in the vicinity of Spring- field. In support of this, the Illinois was navigable for boats of some kind as far up as Joliet, only forty miles THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 135 southwest of Chicago or Lake Michigan; for Chicago was then a little, inconsequential town, not nearly as thrifty and prosperous as Pekin and Peoria, on the Illinois Kiver. The Kaskaskia, very much such a stream, was used for many years as a small navigable waterway, and the Sanga- mon, in proportion to the population, was used as much by floating craft, consisting of flatboats, rafts, skiffs, and canoes, which, in a new country, almost destitute of roads and bridges for outside communication or commerce, were the chief avenues for trade and barter. Local matters, the surround- ings and home influences, have much to do in forming the habits and dispositions of men, as well as hi shaping the course and direction of business and human affairs. There was no consideration of the effects of cultivation on these streams, and the many means of drainage that became a necessity as soon as farms were made. This went on all over the interior, and hundreds of swamps and little bodies of water were drained, thus lessening the reservoirs which held the water supplies of the Sangamon and other rivers after the spring freshets were over. These drain- ings were little heeded, and the belief generally prevailed that, with some small help from Congress, the State, and the energy of the people along tlie river to demonstrate its feasibility, navigation of the Sangamon was not only prac- ticable, but a necessity. This developed a local question, with far-reaching re- sults, to the advocacy of a system of "internal improve- ments" because of the public demand. This had much to do in shaping the career of many able men all over the great West. There were necessities for roads, bridges, and highways for traffic, springing up from thousands of new settlements. That the Nation could undertake and build all of them was a popular belief at home, and the appeal for help would have prevailed in Congress; but when they were half considered, it was easily seen that there were 136 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. no means available for such a system otherwise than by di- rect taxation. This was not desirable by any means as a party policy, especially so to any party in office, as the Demo- cratic party was without adequate means to carry on the work. The people along the water-courses were compelled to depend on their own resources for their improvements, which they made, in many instances, without Congressional legis- lation or help from their States. After long discussion, heated party disputes, and much wrangling in Congress, it was determined it would not be wise to inaugurate a system of internal improvements supported by direct taxation. This was, in many ways, a timid, if not a cowardly, evasion of plain and manifest duty, that brought the invariable punish- ment of hesitation when courage and action were sternly demanded, and had much to do as the beginning of the alternative policy of squandering the continental area of public lands for half-built railroads and unfinished water- ways. It was many years before the true situation was real- ized that there was such a boundless region in a state of nature, and that it would take generations of men to im- prove and reduce it to the best uses of mankind in place of the few years in which the hard-working, zealous pioneers fully expected to accomplish the great work. We have written at some length because the enthusiastic discussion through which the question passed had much to do in forming the habits, pursuits, and character of the boy who had reached his majority in 1830, the year in which he, with the help of John Hanks, got the Lincoln family comfortably settled on their little clearing in Macon County. Feeling that he was "of age," he and Hanks began their search for active employment best suited to their capacities and inclinations. That Abe was thoughtful and studious is shown by his THE MEN OE HIS TIME. 137 seeking the river occupation. Hanks said: "Abe could out- talk any man in our parts on internal improvements and river business the first winter after they came to Macon County." Hence, in the spring of 1831, they found a some- what venturesome trader, merchant, and stockdealer — Den- ton Offut — in the vicinity of Springfield, with whom they made a bargain to take a flatboat of produce and sundry ar- ticles for sale, as he would supply them with, down the river as far as New Orleans, if necessary, to make profitable dis- posal of them. It was not a happen-so or hazardous venture that took Abe into this second trading expedition down the lower river. His first one had been something of a success. He received more than ordinary wages, and saw much of the world for a growing-up, inquisitive Western boy. In 1831-32 he fully believed that the Sangamon could be made navigable, and as fully believed, with his neigh- bors, that Congress should provide means for the improve- ment of our Western waterways as certainly as harbors and inlets on the Atlantic. He had seen the river-freighting business profitably carried on for years before he came to Illinois, on the Kentucky, the Ohio, some other smaller streams, and on the lower Mississippi. With these ideas in full control, strong, ambitious man that he was in the beginning of his career, he left his neighborhood in search of this kind of employment. He knew that the Sangamon River had been used for flatboat navigation to some extent, and that if sufficient water could be provided by any sort of system, a useful and profitable business could be established, which their ex- periment would determine. Full of ambitious hopes three of them — Abe, Hanks, and John Johnston, the foster brother — made their bargain with Offut to take the boat for fifty cents a day for each, as wages, and the contingent interest of twenty dollars apiece, if half of the profits aggre- 138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. gated that amount, or their proportionate share up to that limit. When the ice broke up in March, these three ambitious men walked thirty miles northwest to Jamestown, the near- est navigable point on the river to Springfield, where, by agreement, Offut was to have his boat and cargo ready for embarkation and progress gulfward. Their surprise was great in learning "that not a lick had been struck towards building the boat or picking up the produce." The disappointment was unexpected and severe to all of them, and Hanks said: "We would have given up the whole thing if it had not been for Abe. He proposed that if Offut would stir round and get in the produce, we would build the boat, and we did build it in a little over two weeks, taking the trees from the stump, when 'most everybody round there thought sure it would take us a whole month." They were delayed and disappointed, but through the indomitable perseverance of Abe the boat was built and loaded and pushed off from the Jamestown landing before the first of April. It was a little late in the season, but the strong will and determination of the master of the rough-looking, but strongly-built boat was compensation for many defects and delays. At Rutledge's mill, near New Salem, in Menard County, about twenty miles down the river, they found the mill- dam chute, or water-opening, some three feet narrower than the boat. The disaster was serious at the stage of water and the far-advanced season, disappointing, and fore- boding total loss of boat and cargo. Offut came, and the whole of Salem's two hundred inhabitants turned out to see the boat dammed in, firmly held behind the tremendous breastwork of logs, rocks, and earth, and likely, as most of them said, to remain there, or sink to the bottom. Offut and some of their crew despaired; but Abe did THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 139 not for a moment. He planned, and when he was ready, he shoved to the opposite shore from the mill, and began un- loading; but the hands were inexperienced, and they un- loaded the forward end too fast. The rear end sank under the deep water behind the dam, and almost capsized it. This it would have done had it not been for the instant action and herculean strength of Abe, who jumped into the water, and held the boat to its position close against the dam with his own tremendous power until it was righted. They unloaded it, and when done they pushed the empty boat over the dam, where there was about two feet of water running over it. They pumped the water out and reloaded it below, and proceeded on their way rejoicing. The whole town of New Salem voted Abe a hero, and such he truly was at that early day, in every inch of his majestic stature of six feet four inches. His reputation grew and waxed strong in this town, which was to be his home the succeeding three years, after which both Abe and the town "departed." Offut remarked some years afterwards, but after several disappointments in business, "that the town seemed to be there and the chute too narrow, just to give Abe Lincoln a start." They floated and passed down the river, going all the way to New Orleans with nothing as serious or dangerous as the passage at Eutledge's mill. Their trip was success- ful, enough so for each to receive the twenty dollars in addition to his wages. This was Lincoln's second journey to New Orleans, when he was again horror-stricken at sights too common to be avoided, gangs of men and women, chained, up and down the wharves at New Orleans. They saw, too, public sales of men and women where they were stripped and examined, with the careless bru- tality "stirring up" and looking at cattle. Abe again visited "the pens." Returning to his friends, he denounced slavery with all the earnestness and strength of expression of which 140 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. he was a master. Hanks said: "His talk agin slavery right down thai amongst it reminded me of our good old deacon, hack in Indiana, accusin' the people of thar wickedness afore thar face, an' backin' it up readin' from Skriptur' as he went along. By them days he conld talk as well as any- body, not exceptin' the biggest preachers, and we had some good ones. We were afeared of gettin' into trouble about his talkin' so much, and. we coaxed him with all our might to be quieter-like down thar, for it wouldn't do any good nohow." Hanks believed that it was on this trip that Abe's mind was first aroused against slavery, but it was more of a cor- roboration following his first awakening, three years before, which has been related. There has been some controversy and difference of opinion as to the time when Mr. Lincoln was first aroused against the enormities of the slavery sys- tem. Some have placed it on the date of this last flatboat journey to New Orleans, which Hanks seemed inclined to believe; but Hanks was little of a reasoner. He heard Lin- coln's fiery denunciation, which aroused him for the first time, and naturally it came to him that both of them had realized its horrors at the same time; but, as already re- lated, Mr. Lincoln had seen and understood it as well pre- viously. itfor is it probable that his beliefs and convictions on slavery were suddenly formed. A young boy of his habits and thirst for knowledge, who had carefully read and studied his mother's Bible three times over with her help by his tenth year, must have held strong opinions in early life against slavery, which grew with his strength and manhood. In all his private life there was nothing more entertaining or deeply pathetic, than his consideration of Moses as a leader of his people, and their wonderful deliverance from bondage. He grew to calm, deliberate judgment through the most patient inquiry and the investigation of every fact THE MEN OF HTS TIME. 141 and circumstance within his reach. It was during this voy- age down the Sangamon, tiding liis boat over sandbars and the many obstructions of the shallow stream, that a plan came to his mind to buoy vessels over such places by string- ing bags of air along each side, dropping and holding them under water when the low places where reached. Afterwards in 1849, while a member of Congress, he had a device for carrying out his plan patented. The plain, hand-made model of his invention is still in the Patent Office at Washington. No use was ever made of the plan, because it seemed to be more convenient to run barges or small craft along with heavily-laden vessels on our inland shallow waters, where they were lashed to the sides and used as lighters to raise them and help them to carry freight over the lowest places. These were usually convenient, and when so were always ready for use. Mr. Lincoln's device was a sensible one, but the barges and lighter craft were more ready at hand. On their return in the summer they walked most of the way to their homes. They were convinced that boating on the Sangamon, with its shallow bed and its uncertain stages of water, was too precarious to promise profitable occupation. Thomas Lincoln and his good wife, hs the family grew up and left them, were not satisfied with the lonesome location in Macon County. The settlement was remote from any other, and the younger members of the family having sepa- rated in search of employment, the elder people, father and mother, with some of their grandchildren, moved eastward some seventy miles into Coles County, on Goose-neck prairie, where they bought a small farm and made it their home. Thomas Ijincoln lived there until 1851, when he died at about seventy years of age. Abe's filial care and attention to his parents, and his continuing help, that in age they might enjoy all the comforts that were within his means, were worthy of the man and his dutiful, generous heart. If we could look in and know what he contributed and how 142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. cheerfully it was supplied, it would reveal a fountain of real goodness, as surprising and remarkable as the exercise of his wonderful talents astonished and delighted our people. When he earned a dollar, its first use was to make these old people comfortable. It would be tedious to relate even a part of the information that was commonly known and told on the subject. He supplied means for them over and over again; he never called it giving or a mistake when he knew that in mistaken confidence these might be misapplied, and again and again when he believed they would be. He was liberal with and helped his foster-brother John- ston, when, if he had labored and economized like Abe, he could have been the most helpful to their parents, for he was spending nothing to get an education, Abe helped him until he realized that he was doing him more injury than good in encouraging his idleness, when he wrote him two strong, fatherly, more than brotherly, letters, admonishing him of what had been done, closing with the emphatic advice and direction, "Go to work is the only cure for your case." His good step-mother lived in her age after his martyr- dom. Her tribute to him was the best that her words could fashion, expressive of a mother's feeling: "I had a son John who was raised with Abe. Both were good boys; but I must say, both now being dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw, or ever expect to see. He never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused, in fact or appearance, to do any- thing I asked him. His mind and mine, what I had, seemed to run together. He was delighted when we were happy and contented." Thomas Lincoln passed away full of years and honest toil, a man whose labor and industry were unselfishly given for the welfare of his family and friends, who shared his homelike fare and hospitality. Some have written him a "restless, thriftless man, who was always ready to move." He worked hard for a lifetime, pioneered his way into two THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 143 great, growdng States; to the last one where his son would win more than a cro^Ti. They lived sparingly sometimes; but the Master fed them, and they grew to be stalwart men — the son until he had no equal in all the land — and in their generous or most careful living no one ever left their cabin door either cold, unsheltered, or hungry. Thomas Lincoln "did not do much," as some have written of him. Who does? Is it not something, a grand some- thing, to be the father and rear to such majestic manhood the man, prophet and leader, Abraham Lincoln? If we could open the seals of the great Book and read, what would we see of Thomas Lincoln, and what of the scribblers who, as they said, knew, and who wrote "that he was a thriftless man?" Abe remained with his parents a few weeks in the fall of 1831, when he returned to the vicinity of Springfield and the river towns north and northwest. He had become a famous chopper, able for the work of two or three ordinary men, and he easily found several jobs in the winter in cabin- building and the improvements then becoming common. He made a little something in money out of this hard work, and as frugality was a necessity then, he saved during the year, including his river trip, something over one hundred dollars. Early in the spring of 1832 he selected New Salem for what he expected to be his permanent home. He had been in the village only a few months when the governor called for several companies of volunteers for service in the Black Hawk Indian War, then in progress in the northern part of Illinois, and further north and west. He felt that being young, strong, and healthy, and not in any permanent em- ploj'ment, it was his duty to go, and he promptly enlisted. As it has always been when there has been need and a call has been made for volunteers by the proper authorities, the call for men to resist the invasion of Black Hawk, his associated tribes and warriors, was responded to with the 144 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. patriotic alacrity that has alwaj's characterized the Amer- ican people. Almost one hundred assembled in Springfield under the call. Abe Lincoln was one of them, and was more anxious to be elected captain of the company than he was to any other office until 1860. He said: "I had high regard for the office of governor, and for Governor Eeynolds, gov- ernor at the time; but I was better pleased in being elected captain than I would have been to be elected to his office." The old "Ranger Governor"' Avas a Democrat all over, not only as a partisan; but he assured the volunteers, per- sonally, those in Springfield, that their selections for officers would be commissioned without any kind of interference. This promise he faithfully performed, and in every possible way contributed to their comfort and welfare, going with them himself on the expedition. An energetic young man, Kirkpatrick, was anxious for and labored incessantly to obtain the position of captain. He knew everybody, and in all the preliminary work and talk about the company and its officers he had much advan- tage, for Abe was little known, and so sincerely modest about it that he had only spoken to two or three members of the company. To those he had only said that he would like to be captain, and that he thought that he was as well en- titled to it as Kirkpatrick. So little had been said about his ambition, that Avhen the time for the election came he, like most of them, sup- posed that he had very little if any chance; but as Hanks said, "Kirkpatrick helped Abe out." He was eager and out- spoken. Taking his position, he addressed the company, saying: "I suppose it is as good as settled who is to be your captain, but it will be better to go through the form. All who are for me will form in line behind me. If there is any other candidate he can step forward, and you who favor him can do likewise." This he spoke very confidently, sure of his election ; but Abe was not to be defeated so easily, and THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 145 stepped ont, erect, stalwart, and almost defiant at the slight- ing allusion, but saying only, "Come on, boys," in his mellow, persuading voice, that no one ever surpassed. When the division was made, more than eighty-five of the ninety-three had lined up with Abe for captain. The election was of incalculable benefit to him. It gave him strength and rejoutatiou among the people, whose admira- tion kept pace with the knowledge they gained of the re- markable youth, and, perhaps the best of all, it gave him confidence in himself, an element of character as necessary as courage. The company was organized and hurried forward, for the emergency was a serious one. Kirkpatrick submitted grace- fully, and served with the rest as faithfully as any one of them. The several companies assembled at Kichland, Sanga- mon County, on the 21st of April, 1832, where they were mustered into the Fourth Illinois Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Samuel Thompson. As soon as the regiment was organized, they began their march to join General Whiteside's command. Moving out of Eichland on the 27th, they started on their march, west and a little nortb, to Yellow Banks, on the Mississippi River, arriving there about May 3d, after a march of over one hun- dred and fifty miles. They encountered several streams, which they were compelled to bridge before crossing, one swollen to over one hundred and fifty feet wide.- This they bridged and crossed in three hours, with their command of two thousand men, and without loss and little damage to their slender supply-train. Governor Reynolds, one of the hero pioneers of the State, accompanied the expedition, and shared all the hardships and privations of the campaign. When they reached the Mississippi, the vessel from the lower river with supplies had not arrived. The country was sparsely inhabited, and with their own supply about exhausted in the march, they resorted 10 146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to the American privilege of "grumbling for cause" against all who were responsible for such inexcusable lack of prep- aration. The governor took his share of the blame. They "for- aged" the country in every direction, and the governor and ever)'^ one else that had supplies divided as long as anything was left; nevertheless they lived three days on less than one-half day's rations. . At the end of this it was a camp of hungry, starving men. The steamer finally arrived loaded down with supplies and provisions on the 6th of May. The camp resounded with cheers and rejoicings, as though they won a victory, and the troubled governor with the rest was relieved. He was always held in high esteem, which in- creased after this for his care and attention to the wants of these men, and his patient endurance of all the hardships of the campaign. The pinching want for food and three days' starvation of some of them was never forgotten. In later years, when Mr. Lincoln was President, his instructions were emphatic to keep subsistence well up with the armies; for he well remembered the sufferings of hungry men in camp. After being supplied and provisioned, they moved forward up the east side of the river to the mouth of Eock Eiver, now Rock Island, about ninety miles. From this they kept on their forward movement up the south side of Rock River to the vicinity of Dixon, where they united with General Atkinson, in command of the regular forces operating against the Indians. Before joining Atkinson, Majors Stillman and Bailey Joined them with two battalions of mounted men. They were well equipped and supplied, and not worn out like Whiteside's command, which had marched over three hun- dred miles, and whose supply-train had not arrived. These horsemen had not seen enough service to make them pru- dent. Their ambition for "a fray" with the Indians outran THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 147 their judgment, very much to their sorrow as the result proved, in expecting easy triumph over Black Havtic, one of the most experienced chieftains of his race. Governor Reynolds yielded to their desires, and per- mitted an advance into the Indian camp. They came upon an outpost of the Indians, which they assaulted, vigorously driving them back on their main camp, some half mile or more, killing two or three of them, and wounding several more. The Indians fled so rapidly before the attack that Stillman's men supposed it was a complete defeat of the Indians, and that they had won a victory and "had them on the run." They were full of enthusiasm and excitement, rejoicing over Black Hawk's easy defeat. Thus they were scattered along the half-mile of the approach to near the main Indian camp, not in any military form or where they could be assembled in line at once as soldiers should be in the face of an enemy, but in all kinds of disorder. A prelimi- nary skirmish in which they were victorious, made them careless when all of them should have been in line, compact and ready for the resisting blows which their advance had provoked. It was late in the evening, in the dull fading light, the time when an Indian is best ready for battle. In this con- fusion and disorder these volunteers, brave men enough when well led and commanded, misconceived, or forgot for a few moments, the strength of columns ready for action, and the never-varying necessity that a soldier in war should bo ever ready for duty. Black Hawk with a sudden "whoop," an Indian's slogan that flies on the wind, assembled several hundred warriors, and led them in a furious counter assault against the re- joicing pursiiers of their retreating outer-guard. The cav- alrymen were sitting easily on their horses, without orders, straggled out to a single line and a few groups, when from 148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. behind every tree and bush and little hill or bunch of grass there broke on these confident victors a crackling rifle-rattle, deadly and at close range, blazing on them a well-directed fire on their front and along both flanks to the rear. The doubling back and doubling on each other of men and horses crowding back and inward in surging, tangled masses was frightful. The men were in a panic, for there was nothing to do, as they thought, but to run wherever they could for safety. There was no one in sight to com- mand, and not a dozen men in hearing to obey. There was no plan of action, and they were in no condition to execute it if there had been. There was nothing to be gained where they were for the time no more than targets for the In- dians' close-killing fire. The confusion, wild in the beginning, grew wilder still as men and horses crowded and jammed in upon one an- other. They became an easier mark for the closer-flying bullets, when, too, the horsemen could make little defense on untrained and panic-stricken horses against an enemy double their number firing from ambush. The horses reared and plunged and ran. The men were good horsemen, and held their seats fairly well, but the beasts in their fury opened the wav to the rear, stamoeded, and in their maddened flight saved Stillraan's men, all but eleven killed in as many minutes, and as many wounded. Black Hawk had planned for their complete destruction, and came near accomplish- ing it. Stillman's run should have been a lasting warning and example, which it has not been; for a hundred such, differ- ing little from it, have happened since. Black Hawk, born in 1768, died in 1838, was chieftain in succession, to be leader, king, and statesman for his people for fifty years. He fought the "white men" from 1804 to his death, because, as he said: "My people were robbed of their lands in the council where they gave the white men our lands, seven THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 149 hundred miles on both sides of the Mississippi, north from near Quincy, and north and west to the great mountains. The white men made our chiefs drunk on their fire-water, and in their drunken white man's spree took our lands. They agreed to give one thousand dollars a year while their drunken chiefs live; but this they can annul in another drunken council. Black Hawk will never agree to this. He will fight. His people own their lands, and no drunken council can sell them without their consent." He joined Britain against us in 1812, and led in other uprisings against the ''whites," firmly believing in the rights of the Indians and in fighting for their lands and heritages, as any other brave, untutored leader and people would have done. Their uprisings were, of course, suppressed, and their lands all taken, right along as a policy, by the advancing tide, by the migrating, moving population that was taking the continent. The narrow, land-robbing policy that prevailed against Black Hawk and the Sac and Fox tribes was the same that has been pursued against all the Indians from the first settle- ments of the Colonies, — a faithless barter for their lands; a faithless compliance with the one-sided treaties ; and a war of extermination to enforce the land-plundering schemes, in which thousands of appointees, agents, camp-looters, and various listed beneficiaries made fortunes in the ordinary progress of the plan, and greater ones in war, whenever the Indians took up arms in defense of their lands and homes and against the policy of conquest and extinction of their race. The plea for all these exterminating wars against the savage owners of the continent was found in the butcheries of non-participating settlers by these maddened, furious wild men, fighting out their system against more powerful invaders. Penn founded and made a Commonwealth, and neither fought nor robbed the aborigines he found in its "sylvan" forests. 150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The campaign against this great Red Man in 1832, in which Captain Lincoln and his company participated, was his last one. Black Hawk was terribly defeated, his warriors were slaughtered without mercy, and the remnants routed at Bad Axe, August 21st. He was captured a few days later, and carried to Washington in triumph, where he told his and his people's story in emphatic language, if not in the elegant forms of courtly evasion. To President Jackson in erect, defiant attitude and address he said: 'T am a man, and you are another. I did not expect to conquer the white people. I took up the hatchet to avenge injuries which could no longer be borne. Had I borne them longer, my people would have said Black Hawk is a squaw; he is too old to be chief. He is no Sac. This caused me to raise the war- whoop. I say no more of it ; all is known to you." He and the remnants of the once powerful tribe were placed on a reservation near Fort Des Moines, where he died at seventy, held by many to be the last great prophet, king, and chieftain of his race. At the expiration of the two months, the time for which Governor Reynolds had called out the Illinois troops, General Whiteside's command of two regiments and some cavalry were mustered out, including Captain Lincoln's company. General Atkinson's arrival with something near a brigade of regular troops was sufficient force to fight, but principally to follow a few hundred defeated savages and capture them. According to the old plan, they were followed and well-nigh obliterated, with their Canadian British allies, at Bad Axe and Wisconsin Falls in August. Captain Lincoln, Major Stuart (afterwards his law part- ner). General Whiteside, and others re-enlisted, and formed a "spy company" of scouts, which served some thirty days longer. Their period of service passed also before the clos- ing battles, and the last of them were mustered out at WTiitewater, Wisconsin, June 16 to 20, 1832, when Robert THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 151 Anderson, later of Fort Sumter, then a lieutenant of artil- lery, mustered out of service with others "Private A. Lin- coln, of Sangamon County." These discharged volunteers, Lincoln being one of them, and always one of the jolliest, best-natured, and most resourceful among them, paddled and pushed and walked their three hundred miles home. Mr, Lincoln's military career was short, and thai it was not brilliant was no fault of his. No one who ever knew him doubted his courage or capacity. In order to help all he could, he remained in service longer than his company, and as long as his services were desired, when to do so he re-enlisted as a private soldier. The service, small or great, was one of the most pronounced achievements of his rising progress. His distinction as captain marks the rise of Lin- coln as one of commanding importance, and one he was en- titled to because of his character and fitness, and was sus- tained, as "when the wicked rise men hide themselves ;" but .when Lincoln rose the people saw an honest man. It brought him at once to the knowledge and favorable acquaintance of full three hundred men, leaders and to-be- leaders of the growing, powerful Western Commonwealth, "the richest one in all the plain." He had been a captain, and they found that was only part of what he could be and not be "above himself" in position. He had endeared him- self to all there was of New Salem, and was making himself by this service the same to Springfield and the whole county. He always underrated his work. He was so candid and sincere, that he seemed to delight in his exuberant humor to expose the exaggerations or sophistries of overtold military achievements and renown, as unmercifully, too, as those of a man whom he respected as well as he did Lewis Cass. In referring to his service in the Black Hawk campaign in Congress in 1849, one of the raciest bits of humor in all our history, he said: "Mr. Speaker, I am a military hero. In the days of the Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and came 152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. away. I was not at Stillman's defeat; but I was about as near it as General Cass was to Hull's surrender, and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite cer- tain that I did not break my sword, for I had none to break ; but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If General Cass went ahead of me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges on the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and, although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truth- fully say that I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if ever I should conclude to doff whatever our democratic friends may suppose there is of 'Black Cockade Federalism' about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest that they shall not make fun of me as they have done of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero." It was in August or September, 1831, that Abe left his father's, to seek a home and business of his own. He quite naturally returned to New Salem, where he was acquainted with everybody. He found Offut still in business of several kinds, merchandising, milling, and all kinds of trading, for he was venturesome, and willingly undertook any kind of barter or trade that had promise or prospect of success. Abe became a clerk in his store about September, where he remained most of the time until the next April, 1832, when he enlisted and became captain of his company as re- lated. Offut was his constant helper and friend. He was a man who heartily enjoyed the rough, wild fun of the strong-limbed pioneers about him, and encouraged them in much of their merry-making at the expense of timid and foppish men and "town fellers who felt above them." Offut liked Abe, and was soon more firmly attached to him on account of his studious habits, his capacity, and in- tegrity. He soon learned, too, the truth of Abe's wonder- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 163 ful strength, suppleness, and dexterity, and that in the rough tumbling, wrestling, and ''knock-downs" that occurred so often, almost certainly every Saturday afternoon, about his store, he would be a match for any two or three of them. Knowing this so well, he dissuaded most of these "rowdy fellows" from taking Abe through the "rag and wrastle" initiation, which every "new feller" had to take and endure in some way. Offut urged this because he knew that Abe very much disliked such rough, rowdy fun, that his habits were studi- ous, that he had the manner and inclination of a gentleman, that he was sober and temperate in all his ways and living, and, though possessing enormous strength, he had no desire to exercise it on his fellow-men, and that he would not do so except in urgent necessity. Offu't's persuasions were sufficient for all but "the Clary boys from Clar/s Grove," and one of their friends, Arm- strong, of strong and powerful build, the neighborhood's "belted champion." They caught Abe on the streets of the village, an easy thing to do, for he never avoided any one. Armstrong assaulted him furiously, striking him two or three heavy blows on his side before he realized his situation; when he did, he stretched out his powerful right arm, seized Armstrong by the throat in a grip as firm and unyielding as the clutch of an iron vise, and held him at arm's length against a wall; choking and making him gasp for breath, in which condition by signs he gave up the struggle, and was asking for mercy. The other five were ready to join in the assault; but Armstrong waved them off, which surprised them. When Abe let go, Armstrong took his hand in the warmest friend- ship, and was ever after truly his friend. Turning to the crowd, he said: "Boys, you'll never want to feel the grip of that hand but once. He could have piled all six of us in that corner in six minutes or less. It 's mighty well we 154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. got off as well as we did, with no bones broken." It was well that Armstrong gained the sympathy of Lincoln's great heart, for it came about in after years that in masterly un- ravelings of false testimony he saved Armstrong's son from conviction for murder. Abe was so good-natured about the "fracas" that they all quit friends, not by any concessions on Abe's part nor any overbearing conduct. He turned to them, and gave a little lecture on good behavior, which made them all better men and his friends for life. One of them telling of it after- wards, feeling as they all did, said: "When Abe told us what we orter' do, and war n't a bit mad about our waitin' for him, and showed up right thar such a gentleman, we just cried and made friends, and we 've been fur him ever since agin the world." He had the strength of a giant, and the good sense with it not to use his marvelous power for the destruction, but for the betterment of his fellow-men. CHAPTER VII. THEEE were many incidents and happenings of interest to Abe, and about him from his location in New Salem, in August, 1831, to the next August, when he returned from the Black Hawk War. It was one of the formative periods for the turning and directing of his future life and character. His habits were good. He had improved his mind to the full extent of his opportunities. He had health, strength, and capacity for any occupation in life that might open for him. He was temperate and industrious. He knew all through his youth that heavy responsibilities rested upon him, which helped to give him his studious, almost melan- cholic turn of thought. He had at this time the additional reason for industry and economy that his parents were growing in years, and were in condition that required his help. The question came to him, as it does to every young man at the outset of his career, Could he mix and mingle with people in the business or occupation he might choose, and endure the hard, daily battle through which all who succeed must pass and suffer, and preserve his habits, industry, and integrity of character, by which he had grown to such prom- ising manhood? The result of these pertinent inquiries was an important concern with him at New Salem, and our highest duty now is to show that he not only sustained himself, but that, surrounded by the rough experiences of frontier life, he grew stronger and better, more influential and powerful in the cause of right and justice, in every work or pursuit which he undertook. 156 156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He soon grew to such distinct and positive character, that in his first year he became known as "honest Abe," a distinction, too, which he held among the pioneers of Central Illinois, who knew him well. This he not only held, but before he was forty years of age he was graduated into "Honest Old Abe,'' a title of respect and endearment which could only be appreciated as it was intended and used by those familiar with the sturdy character and heroic industry of men, as faithful in labor and exposure, as they were up- right and fearless in duty or danger. He used all his powers of friendly persuasion, as well as his strength, so skillfully and well to preserve the peace, that he became an authority on the subject, whose findings and judgment could always be enforced. Instances were common where he was called on to settle difficulties between angry disputants, in some of which a grasp and stroke or two became necessary to shake the sense into them. A peacemaker who could make peace was there, but usually his plain, friendly advice to carry on their sports with moderation, and to make it the object of their lives to grow to be better men every day they lived, was all that was needed after he had gained his uncontested leadership among them. It would have been easy for him to have won great distinction in contests of activity, dexterity, and strength. He often lifted as much as other men, with the man, or his weight, added. He could throw a twenty-pound hickory maul twice as far as any one else. He was something of a wrestler, but avoided the repu- tation of becoming one as best he could. While on the Indian campaign he found himself gaining more notoriety as one than he desired. One day, when he and the most "expert tripper and wrestler" in the command were having a trial, both fell at once. Abe right away conceded him to be the champion, when at the same time a comrade said, "Abe could have picked him up and carried him off the THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 157 ground." But he was tired of the sport such as it was, and, disliking the reputation more, he in this way avoided both. He was so careful and scrupulous in all business trans- actions, that several times he made long walks to the coun- try, after night when there was no other time, to rectify mistakes where errors had been made in making change or overcharging, and to take home packages left by their owners, through no fault or neglect of any one but them- selves. One incident of more than ordinary importance occurred during the winter and spring of 1833. In pursuance of the plan to open the Sangamon River for navigation, efforts were made in many directions to secure the good will and co-operation of many influential people, and especially the steamboatmen of the western waters, many of whom were appealed to. Finally Captain Vincent Bogue, of Cincinnati, consented to investigate the river, and after a great deal of ''stir and announcement" in the West, and especially so at Springfield, where it was written up as a sure opening of the river, started on his voyage from St. Louis. The Springfield Journal held it to be the most auspicious event in the history of the town and the whole region round about, which it would have been if the hopes of those ad- venturous boatmen and the people had been fulfilled. Abe being the most experienced navigator of the Sangamon was wanted, and he was ready to aid in the enterprise in every way in which he could contribute anything toward its success. He did not have much faith, as he expressed him- self after his trip, which has been referred to. The bed of the river was too wide. The region it drained was small, so that with its shallow bottom it was only navigable at all during floods and freshets; but having very low banks the stream broadened to a mile or more in high water, hence its navigation was an uncertain and precarious venture at the best. The ponds and lakes were being drained out as the 158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. country settled up, and there was no doubt that as fast as the watery areas were cultivated and drained, the water- supply would become less and less; after further inquiry into the subject, there seemed little hope that Congress would do much, if anything, for the improvement of a small stream like that, when such enormous expenditures for that pe- riod were necessities for the improvement of the thousands of miles of Western rivers, with abundant water for navi- gation all the year. However, his mind was fully aroused in it. The improve- ment of our Western water-courses was always an agreeable subject, and no man of his day, nor since, was ever more earnest or sincere in devotion to the work wherever a chan- nel could be made or bettered. When Captain Bogue reached Beardstown, on the Illinois Kiver, he found Abe, with two or three skillful woodsmen, with their long-handled axes, ready to pilot him along and remove any timber or branches in the way. In a few days the boat reached a point on the river nearest Springfield, about six miles distant. A newspaper said, "The town went wild with excitement for several days." The boat discharged its cargo, took aboard what it could for shipment, and floated away on the stream, never to re- turn. It was burned at St. Louis not many weeks after- wards. Captain Bogue learned what Abe knew before the audacious venture of the little steamer, that the Sangamon was too shallow and the stream too uncertain for even such a boat as the Talisman. Very soon after Abe "settled" in New Salem he made the acquaintance of Menton Graham, "the schoolmaster" of the village and neighborhood at the time. Mr. Graham must have been a diligent student, a patient teacher, and a kindly-disposed man. Mr. Lincoln always respected him, saying of him: "He had more information, better methods, and knew better how to tell what he knew than any teacher THE MEN OF JUS TIME. 159 I had met or stiulied with up to the time. He taught me about all I had to begin with in grammar. He told me where I could get a copy of Kirkham's Grammar, wliich I got very soon by walking out into the country six miles. I set to work on it, and with Graham's valuable help I soon had a tolerably fair knowledge of the subject. I like the old book yet; but it was a puzzler at the start, with its four, five, and six headed rules, about as complicated to beginners as the Longer Cathechism and the Thirty-nine Articles to young ministers." It was his habit to have a dictionary al- ways at hand whenever it was possible or convenient. His mind was methodical if man's ever was. With his knowledge and study of grammar, he pored and puzzled over it until Graham told him, "You know as much about it as I do." By careful spelling, added to his knowl- edge of grammar and the analytical and reasoning powers of a philosopher, he acquired his style in speech and descrip- tion. To him the object always was, first the truth, in the plainest, simplest way he could tell it ; but within his limits, his force, fervor, pathos, and directness, when his great powers were warmed up with his subject, he had so much of the fire of true eloquence in his soul that when he raised his long arm, straightened up his commanding figure, and said in sweet, pleading tones, "No man shall surpass me in his devotion to the Constituton, the casket that holds our liber- ties, nor shall any man surpass me in opposing the admission of another foot of territory or another State under it, as now interpreted, on which the withering curse of human slavery is, or has been planted," his audience were not only taken "off their feet, but on to them." When aroused before audience, court, or jury, no other man in our time could take them into his confidence, and carry them along to his conclusions like Lincoln, whose pleadings, gentle as a child's, made men as brave as Hector. Before his enlistment for the Indian campaign he an- 160 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. nounced himself as a candidate for the Legislature from Sangamon County, which was then entitled to four repre- sentatives. The election was held early in August. As nothing of progress had been done before as stated, he had only a few days left after his return from military service in which to make his canvass. Although his service had been creditable, and he returned with more and better friends, it gave him little advantage, if any, for his political campaign. It might be said that the issues were made up and the suc- cessful candidates selected before he got back. He had no time, being a stranger in every part of a large county except his home, to make the acquaintance needed to be one of the people's representatives. He made two or three addresses in different parts of the county, where he was well received, and one of these was in Springfield. At the latter he met Judge S. T. Logan and Governor Edwards for the first time, and several acquaintances and friends, who became his sup- porters then and for his lifetime. Major John T. Stuart, who was in service with him, was elected to that Legislature, he being well acquainted all over the county and the region. His military service was a benefit to him, as it would have been to Mr. Lincoln had he been as well known, but, not being so, he was defeated. There have been differences as to what were Mr. Lincoln's political beliefs in this, his first canvass. He re- marked of it himself, that political questions were barely considered in it, which was shown bv the election of Stuart and Cartwright, Whig and Democrat respectively, by about the same vote. There is little doubt, however, that Lincoln, even in the formative period of his career, was inclined to the Whig party. There was no man of that day in public life, in whom he believed so implicity, or followed so faith- fully, as Henry Clay. Early in his Hlinois residence he became a diligent reader of the Louisville Journal, managed by George D. Prentice, THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 161 one of the most capable, industrious, and brilliant writers of the time, and one of the strongest partisans in the Whig party. With the admiration and devotion he had for Clay as a leader, and his steady reading of Prentice's wit, argument, and biting satire, he drifted into the beliefs of these talented men, when, in consequence, his inclinations to Whig policies and principles grew stronger. But as he often said, he had high respect and attach- ment for Jackson, for his positive, determined way of doing anything, for his intrepid courage, daring service, and his wise management of public affairs not strictly partisan, for his unswerving and outspoken loyalty and love of country throughout his long struggle with Calhoun and his hot- headed Carolinians, Avho from 1828 to 1833 nullified the excise laws as far as they were able, and until Jackson de- clared that he would "enforce the laws of the country and preserve the Union from the nullifiers if he had to hang every one of them," in which way came about the suppression of the first attempt to establish a slave Confederacy. There were several important considerations which had more or less effect in influencing an ardent young man, such as he then was, to the advocacy of the doctrines of the Whigs. In the wide plains, prairies, swamps, and rivers of the great West there Avas crying need for almost unlimited expenditures for draining, bridging, channel opening, and deepening of rivers and harbors, for internal navigation and commerce, which took shape for public discussion as early as Jackson's terms, from 1828 to 1836, by the Whigs making a declaration of policy in favor of a "system of internal im- provements." The Democratic party being in power for the long period from 1828 to 1860, with only two interregnums, those of Harrison in 1840 and Taylor in 1848, laden with its cheap labor heresy, could not adopt the internal-improvement policy without carrying it into operation ; to do which there 11 162 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. were neither the necessary funds in ordinary, nor had it the courage and disposition to impose taxes of any kind adequate for the work required. The Whigs declared in favor of the policy which had much to do in shaping the political belief of thousands of men all over the West during the periods of its rapid and preponderating growth from 1830 to 1860, among whom was Mr. Lincoln. This policy prevailed and became popular from 18-10 to 1860, when Illinois, Missouri, and some other Western States, in lack of National help, loaned their own credit, and otherwise aided in the building of canals, harbors, and railways. It resulted eventually in a land-grant system in aid of railway construction and other quasi-public improvements, first undertaken by the States, and then going to corporations. It has always been a policy of very doubtful propriety, but one so apparently needed that it received the support of all parties in the West until the land-grant railroads had been built. Since then the people have been seriously pondering and coming to a knowledge of the value of the lands and fran- chises given away, properties and resoiirces of such colossal magnitude as to dwarf in comparison all there is of some noted Old World kingdoms. There is the further fact that Major Stuart, Judge Logan, the Speeds, and Herndons, and some others, good and helpful friends of Abe's in his earliest struggles, were all Whigs, all Kentuckians, and "followers of Henry Clay, right or wrong," so their Democratic adversaries said. At least they followed him, and believed he was right all the time. The political conditions of that period are difficult to un- derstand, if measured in the light of the positive and dis- tinct division that followed so soon afterwards, but which manner has always been too common. There was vastly more of personality then than in the warring division of slavery and freedom, and seceding States, contending in arms for and against a divided country. To THE MEN OF HIS TIME 1G3 thousands of the Middle and Western States, Jefferson, Jack- son, Benton, and the "Little Giant," Stephen A. Douglas, were all or about all there was in Democracy for them. These were trusted leaders for two generations or more, and when they sounded the slogans of party beliefs they were devotedly followed, as when the opposition did likewise under the lead of the timbrels and organs and the party cries of Hamilton, the godlike Webster, Scott, and Clay. There was something of leader in Lincoln when a polit- ical beginner; but the time was coming, and not far distant in the thirties, when his ideas and rugged independence of character would be so pronounced and so unmistakably fixed and declared, so plain, emphatic, and fearless, as to make him, among thousands of able ones, the leader of his age. Whatever may have been the state of his political be- liefs, it is certain that partisan divisions were held subordi- nate to personal and local questions that year in Sangamon County, which was sufficiently shown by the election of Whigs and Democrats on the same ticket. Mr. Lincoln made the same statement about it, and his address to the people definitely determined that, "My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the county." He was for the first time a candidate before the people for a public office, and the first of any kind, except his selec- tion as captain. His public address, like all his subsequent ones, was characteristic of the man, plain, sensible, direct, and his subjects were so clearly stated, even when briefly done, as to leave no cause for misunderstanding them. After declaring himself on some local affairs, he said: "Upon the subjects which I have treated I have spoken as I thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them, but holding it a sound maxim that it is better only some- times to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to 164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. renounce them. Every man is said to have his peculiar am- bition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for mine, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this am- bition is yet to be developed. I am young and unknown to many of you. I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or powerful relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the independent voters of the county, and if elected they will have conferred a favor upon me, for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people, in their wisdom, shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disap- pointment to be very much chagrined." There can be little doubt that his youth and want of acquaintance were the causes of his defeat. He was not much known outside of two of the eighteen or twenty townships of the county. He kept well up with the poll in Springfield, and received almost the unanimous vote of his home — New Salem — two hundred and seventy-seven of its two hundred and eighty votes. He took his defeat good-naturedly, and, as he had prom- ised, without regret or repining. His home support was so strong that his friends became more enthusiastic and more firmly attached to him. They felt sure of his ad- vancement in public esteem. The men of his neighbor- hood, in that early day, like the great body of the West- ern people, were Americanized English, Scotch, Irish, and German mainly, or their descendants of the first, second, and, sometimes, of the third generation. Many of them were not as well lettered as their fathers and grandfathers, because of the lack of facilities in the New World, but they were in no sense an ignorant or list- less people. They knew capacity, aptitude, and character THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 165 when they discovered it, and were faithful, helpful, and loyal to the many bright young men among them in their aspirations for learning and knowledge. Among this man- ner of people Lincoln's friends multiplied as his acquaint- ance increased, and, as he seldom lost one, he was soon held in high favor in Sangamon County. His candid, sensible addresses in Springfield were well received, and gained him the favor and friendship of a number of talented and influential men, some of whom have been mentioned. From this time forward their friendly advice and substantial help were always at hand to sustain the marvelous-minded man who was always ready and equipped for the performance of any duty he under- took. To careless people he was a mystery from the begin- ning. He grew to manhood without the training, disci- pline, and methods of the schools; yet the best young man among them did well to keep pace with, and not be distanced by, this irregular, devouring student from farms, flatboats, and the backwoods country. He appreciated the unanimity and hearty good will in which the people of New Salem Township supported him, and, without attracting attention as a defeated candidate, he found means of remembering and thanking them for their cordial support. After his return from his military service and his de- feat for the Legislature, he passed through what was to him a very anxious and doubtful period of his career. His unexpected promotion to a captaincy and his later well- supported distinction cleared the Avay for him to seek some more remunerative employment than that of a farm or day laborer. The navigation of the Sangamon faded as a vision, which was one of his sorest disappointments; for he firmly believed that he would have succeeded in commerce and navigation, and with the supporting reasons that he had 166 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. succeeded in the occupation, and had good capacity for it. It is probable that if he had located at either of the three thriving towns of Alton, Pekin, or Peoria — all Illinois River towns, and almost in his vicinity — he would have be- gun his career as steamboatnian, whatever might have been the consequences. In after life he always regarded it as fortunate that he did not do so. At the time — August, 1832 — the Herndon Brothers had a small country store in New Salem. There was another similar establishment there, owned by one Radford. The country stores of the time dealt in and sold everything needed or in use in the community, from needles, pins, and fish-hooks up to sawmills and threshing-machines. They dealt, too, in the fur pelts and hides of animals, bought and bartered for the surplus products which the farmers brought to market. Beardstown, on the Illinois River, about forty miles west, was their ordinary supply town for the merchandise re- ceived, and the shipping-point for the produce, which they usually sent to St. Louis. The business of these stores was light. The population was small and scattered. The people kept the sheep, and raised the flax, and spun the wool and linen, and did the weaving, and made their clothing. They raised their own pork, beef, and mutton, made their own sausage, smoked hams, made sauerkraut, cured their bacon, and cooked their combread, hominy, com pones or hoecakes as they wished, and became honest, industrious, indepen- dent, sometimes a little contentious, strong-minded, strong- bodied, and supple-limbed, and the best-fed people on the earth. These country stores, with their small stocks on hand, were bartered, traded, and sold, much on the plan and terms of crops and animals grown and growing for the market. There was very little money in circulation; for the great masses "moved West" without much money or property, THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 167 as we have seen the Lin coins did, who were "average West- ern movers." As a result, the bulk of the business of the country was done on long credits, paid when the hogs, cattle, corn, pelts, and wool went to market. The country stores were traded and trafficked in on about the same conditions. In the smaller places, their stocks on hand seldom ran over five hundred dollars; hence it was a com- mon occurrence for them to be sold more than once in the course of a year without any money payment. In this way, the Herndons, not liking the business, offered their store for sale. An intelligent, decently-appearing young man — Mr. Berry — coming West just then, bought the interest of one of them, and Mr. Lincoln bought the interest of the other brother, and became Berry's partner. Eadford sold his entire store to one Green, who had been one of Abe's fellow-boatmen, Mr. Lincoln helped Green to make the invoice, and, believing it a bargain, he pur- chased it from Green for the firm of Berry & Lincoln at an advance of a little over two hundred dollars. Thus the firm became the proprietors of the only coun- try store in the town. In addition, they branched out mostly on hopes, and bought from Eutledge the only hotel. All these transactions were made and paid for in the prom- issory notes of Berry & Lincoln, which, as a good friend related many years afterwards, "went into general circu- lation." The ending of these business ventures was very much like what happened to thousands then and thousands on thousands since and now. The venture was beyond their means or control. They failed in business. Berry died, and Lincoln succeeded to something near a thousand dollars indebtedness, and, in time, about twice that sum in interest, which took him over fifteen years to pay. It was told of Berry that he was dissipated and reckless. Mr. Lincoln said Berry's dissipation was the result, and not the cause, 168 ABE AH AM LINCOLN. of the financial disaster; and while others blamed and cen- sured him, Mr. Lincoln never did. It was said, too, that Mr. Lincoln read too mnch, was careless, and left the management of the business to Berry, who was incompetent, with many other wise observations, such as are made about every business failure. Mr. Lin- coln said of these stories that, as there was not enough business to do, soon after, the purchase he saw that failure was inevitable. Foreseeing this, he began the study of some borrowed law books, which, he said, "I stuck to with all my light and knowledge, knowing very well that the more I knew the better I would be prepared for some other business when that gave out; and the knowledge so gained and my un- pleasant business experience were my entire assets saved from the wreck." From the time of this lamentable failure he continued to be under the thralldom of debts, for which he had no means of payment. These debts, however, made him more cautious, economical, careful, and industrious, and stimu- lated him to renewed energy. After this there never was a day when he was not doing all in his power to pay them. But the heavy load led him to apply every dollar on these debts which he could spare, help his parents along as he could, and live in the very plain and sparing way that he did. One of the lasting benefits they imposed on him through so many years was that they made him all the more studious, thoughtful, melancholic, and the fast friend of men in trouble. From the failure, in the fall of 1832, to the end of the next winter he did whatever his hands found to do. The people in the village and neighborhood were all his friends. He said that he did not believe there was one of them who did not sincerely sympathize with him; but they were all poor, many of them, in the cold winter, almost without fuel. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 169 To all these he was a helper in time of need. One of his friends said of it: "There was many a widow's and poor man's woodpile helped out and their cabins kept warm enough to live in through that winter by Abe, who went to the relief of every worthy person in need he heard of, and, may be, to some who were not." He was alwys able to work his way, and was a welcome guest to any of the farmers who were improving their prem- ises with new buildings, bridges, fences, or betterments of any kind. He helped several in such work that winter. He found a few little jobs of writing, copying, and squaring up books besides, which gave him the means of living until, as he said, "I could do better." His comrade, Major Stuart, who was by that time a promising lawyer, and Judge Logan, then and afterwards, through a long useful career, one of the strongest men of the Springfield bar, both had seen and heard and had been interested and captivated by the "awkward boy's plain, sensible speeches," and encouraged him. To these two able as well as warm-hearted men, while he was in the "pit of despondency" over his misfortunes, he confided his in- tention of taking up the law during that winter of 1833-33. In effect he sought their advice and help if they judged him worthy. He surprised them by what he knew of the statute laws of Indiana and Illinois, more by what he knew of the principles and features of our Government, as based on the Declaration of Independence and the Federal Con- stitution. He knew the codes and collateral subjects so well that he could give the substance of any chapter, and usually the section asked for, from memory, and much of it he could repeat. These men of learning and high standing in the law were interested and pleased, not barely because of the accurate knowledge he had gained under opportunities so meager, but that he had any knowledge of law, statutes. 170 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. codes, or principles with the means he had for study really astonished them. Stuart said of him, "The wonderful ca- pacities of the man, and his exact knowledge of the stat- utes and the science of the law, as it is called, convinced me that he must be a remarakble man, with great talents, to know what he did at twenty-two years, when he first took to law-reading in our office." In his interview with him. Judge Logan said, "How did you gain such knowledge of the statutes and the principles of law and government?" Lincoln replied: "By the hardest kind of study. It was not easy for me, but I stuck to it, and would have done so if it had been twice as hard. Now it comes natural for me to study several hours every day, busy or not, come what may, and especially at night, when I can do no better." Logan looked the young man over carefully. He was an educated man, estimated so in his day, being a schooled, trained, and disciplined lawyer, from the Kentucky bar and University. He had talent and learning that none questioned, and almost everybody liked the man. Lincoln said of his first interview with him: "We talked along easily for an hour. I began to think the Judge had forgotten the principal object of my visit, or that I had not made it clear enough, and would need to bring it up again somehow, backward as I felt about the propriety of it and how far I ought to go. He was held to be the ablest man I had seen. I knew more of the world than the country boys of my age, but I was green and backward, and felt a great deal of hesi- tation in going to Judge Logan. But I had determined to get the best advice I could. Logan's was the best to be had, as I then thought, and do yet [1854]. I intended to give it up if he discouraged me, but to persevere, no mat- ter how tedious and hard the work might prove, or how many difficulties came in the way, if he encouraged me. "He had talked more about it than I expected; but his THE MEN OF HIS TIME, 171 manner and quizzing did not reveal anything, and, as I said, I was about asking him again what he thought of it, or putting on my hat and leaving, when he turned to me, suddenly enough to startle any one, and said: 'Young man, do you really intend to read law? You have good use of language, and appear to he thoughtful. It takes a long time to study and become proficient in even one branch of the law. It is a severe struggle, and a tedious one, for any man to make himself a good lawyer. Without means, as you appear to be, it will be all the harder. When you understand all this, and seriously consider the whole sub- ject, it will be time to talk further about it.' "I replied without any delay or hesitation; for I was nerved up to my best: 'Judge, I don't need further time to consider. My ambition is to be a lawyer, and I will under- take the study of it with all the strength of mind I have, and will, with your and Major Stuart's help, get right down to the work in the best and most persevering way open to me.' Judge Logan looked over his tableful of books in a pleasant way — the first time I noticed any relaxation in his manner during the talk — saying: 'Well, if you are in earnest about it, throw away your statutes, or, rather, you may lay them away; but dispossess your mind of the idea that you know much about law because you have your head full of statutes that may nearly all be repealed and become obsolete before you are ten years older. Law is a science, a system of wisdom and justice, or all of them, founded on the immutable principles of right revealed in the accumu- lated knowledge of the wisest men of all time. The Bible is the greatest law-book in existence. If you want to be a good lawyer, grounded in the foundations of the system, as every learned and experienced man must be, after your Bible take Blackstone for at least six months. It may take you more. You will soon strike your pace. Then you will take up Coke and the Institutes of English law. After 172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. studying the principles of right, justice, and common law, as you will in Blackstone, you will then he able to take Chitty on "Pleadings," Greenleaf on "Evidence," Story on "Contracts," and other standard works on the subjects and particular division of the law as it will surely come to you. Chancellor Kent's Commentaries, a new American work, will come in order. It is one of the best, one that is indispensable to American practitioners as the standard and invaluable ones of Judge Story are. Others will come to you in the course of your reading, which must be, as you no doubt know, studious, persevering, and diligent if you are to succeed. All the books here and all the help I can give you will be yours. So it will be with Stuart and the bar, who will welcome a man of your intelligence and deter- mination. You will do well if you are fit and qualified for practice in three years; but if you master Blackstone as you have mastered the statutes of Indiana and Illinois, there will be room for you in any court in the land.' " This was the lecture and initiation. Abraham Lincoln received the volumes of Blackstone from Judge Logan, took them under his arm, walked home, twenty-two miles, to New Salem, pondering in thoughtful conclusion that he had begun the study of the fundamental principles of law. It will do to say here that what he engaged to do in his talk with Logan he scrupulously fulfilled. He studied his full three years, was the plodding, untiring pupil of Logan and Stuart, and, as Logan predicted, became the favorite of the bar at Springfield, and, in his progress, at Blooming- ton, Urbana, Danville, Clinton, Charleston, Paris, Kanka- kee, and Pontiac, all over Central Illinois, and then at Chi- cago, and from thence "a man to all his country dear." That he became a wise, learned advocate in the law and statecraft is as true as that his teachers and preceptors had the wisdom, learning, and experience to teach him; for his legal preparations for this work were completed, very much THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 173 like Graham's course in grammar, carried to where Logan and Stuart said, "You know as much about it as we do." This has been related carefully because of the wide- spread delusion that Lincoln was an "unlearned country lawj^er." This story has been pretty well "stuck to," and is tolerated among some self-supposed learned men, and even in some pretentious histories of him. As we progress and it becomes apparent that he must meet the best-informed, most learned and talented men of his time on equal terms and conditions, or be utterly un- spared and vanquished as a leader, the fable of his want of learning, elegance, and fitness, as well as strength and knowledge, for his place will vanish; but it may bring up the question, "In what does learning, education, and pro- fessional knowledge consist, as held and rated on this small planet, and what is it to an ordinary man, well fitted up for his lifework, and to a Harvard professor?" The author was a boy of twelve years when he first knew Lincoln, and liked him, as all the boys in Springfield did; for he took pleasure in making us his friends and in telling us delightful little stories of birds and trees and the woods and the animals and the rivers — tales so well suited to our tastes and boyish ways that we always wanted to hear him tell another little story. Later the author knew and was privileged to know inti- mately and well the thoughtful, working statesman, as all of us who knew him best believed him to be, and a man with a wonderful store of knowledge. But it is told that he was not a scholar, and that a dozen or more of young lawyers at Springfield, Bloomington, Danville, and every bar where he practiced law and was leader alongside of Douglas, were scholars and learned lawyers, made so in regular form in colleges and universities. We have learned that many of these, who were reputed learned men and scholars, have been forgotten, and that Abraham Lincoln 174 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. has not been. When we learned this we also learned that Pope never struck any truth nearer its core than when he said, "A little learning is a dangerous thing." He took up his course of study, taking volume after vol- ume of the text-books, as these able men directed. At the same time he carried on his collateral and general reading as industriously as ever. His capacity for gaining, assort- ing, and assimilating knowledge and information seemed equal to his strength and endurance, which was two or three times that of the men about him. Hanks, being asked whether Lincoln was a scholar, re- plied in his plain, blunt way of telling things: "I don't know what a scholar is ; but Abe could n't have knowed more of what he read and studied unless he could have lived without any sleep, and been giv'n lots more time; for he read and studied every minute he was awake and could spare, and he aljvays read and figured and studied until after midnight as long as I was with him. As far as I know, he never met a man that knowed more, not long anyway; for he had the knack of getting at what any other body knowed very quick; and in all the rough-and-ready debates and arguin's and talks about improvements and navigatin' he could beat any man in the whole country up and down the Sangamon Eiver." When we understand that he took up the rudimentary branches of an English education, or courses of study, and mastered them; that he took and completed a regular course in law, with its comprehensive collateral subjects of state- craft, public policy, commerce, navigation, military affairs, and the codes and statutes of mankind from the first rec- ords in history; and that his general reading and informa- tion kept apace with the best and brightest men of his time, we realize that it is one of the follies of light-headed men to rate him as an ''uneducated backwoods country lawyer." It is true that he did not take up, in form or in his own THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 175 way, the languages, the classics, or higher mathematics; but who that knew him, or knows the facts, doubts his capacity to have learned these as well as many branches of human knowledge, in which no one surpassed him? It must be remembered, too, that, although in regular forms he was untaught in language and derivative forms of speech, no one has surpassed him in his use of it for plain, truthful expression, pathetic sentiment, and ideal beauty, or in patri- otic fervor and in tender sympathy. Moses, Job, Shakespeare, Pitt, Burke, and Jefferson left parallels; but Everett, student, professor, and ideal of Harvard, essayed to be remembered at Gettysburg. But while scholar and polished forms are forgotten, Lincoln's heroic and pathetic exaltation of Liberty's defenders will live with the defense of Antonio in the Venetian court. Lincoln, as the man of letters, information, and knowledge, is not easily classed ; but not less so than Moses, David, and some others. But no well-informed person will ever know all of the man, and adjudge him to have been unlettered. God gave him wonderful capacities above all the men of his time. Among these was his ready and rapid aptitude for acquiring knowledge. CHAPTER YIII. THEEE was a heavy movement of people into Central Illinois and other Western States and Territories of the period from 1828-30, becoming heavier year after year, up to the war period, in 1860. It was in this fertile basin of not more than ten counties — mostly in three of them — that Mr. Lincoln developed to manhood. He passed to leadership in the State easily and without contention, and became leader and chosen ruler of the Nation as soon as the events and progress of the righteous cause required his defense, service, and sacrifice. Sangamon County was the central one in his field of labor. In the early '30's, the period of which we are writing, immigrants had heard of its deep alluvial bottoms, and were risking the ague and malarial fever to secure the golden corn-lands, where hogs and cattle never grew better, and where "hog and hominy" became as classic a diet as "pork and beans." They were locating, marking out, and improving farms, and, like the people later on, they were projecting, laying out, and building towns in an uneasy, starting, jerking sort of way, much as men do now when occasion and opportunity are given. It was the first "boom" Illinois had, before Chi- cago was discovered as an uncalculated enterprise and at- mospheric center. Men could become excited in real estate then just as they can be now; and surveyors were in demand. There was work ahead, and a lot of it, to survey and divide Sangamon County's nine hundred square miles into fanns and town lots, and the county surveyor needed help. In the early days John Calhoun was only a plain county 176 THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 177 surveyor, before the fame of having saved his county and territory to his party, by "hiding ballots in candle-boxes, covered up in a woodpile,'' procured for him the unfriendly sobriquet of "Candle-box Calhoun." He gained this title in the turbulent days of the Kansas struggle, and held it until his death, perhaps about 1857 or 1858, away out on the border in Kansas. Calhoun at the time, in the spring of 1833, was looking for help in his work, for there was more surveying desired than he could attend to alone. He knew Abe Lincoln; everj^body in Sangamon County did, after his defeat for the Legislature the year before. He had heard of him as a "likely young man, quick in figures," and "able to get around out doors with, or ahead of, any man in the count}'." He sent for Abe, who responded at once, being advised of the nature of the request. Calhoun handed hun a manual on surveying, one of the standard works at the time, saying: "Abe, here is a book on surveying. I have heard that you are an apt young man, and when you study this sufficiently and understand the work well enough to carry on a survey without help, 1 will be able to give you employment." This information, and the agreement for fees being more than twice as much as he had received for labor or service of any kind, made it an unusual inducement in the strained condition of his finances. It would have been tempting to almost any young man, when to Lincoln it brought the firm resolve to get the contents of that surveyor's book into his head in as few days or weeks as the most determined appli- cation and the severest study could accomplish it. He hastened home from Springfield to the "Master," Graham, who was his friend in need, as he had been when he tackled Kirkham's many-ruled Grammar. Graham was not a profound scholar in mathematics; he was better, espe- cially so in this emergency — a patient, plodding man, who if slow was sure. Lincoln took hold of the work with an 12 178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. earnestness that seemed almost a passion. Graham was doing all for him that one man could do for another. He became uneasy at the intensity and perseverance of his student, who was studying, diagramming, and practically measuring land and calculating distances. He measured with a pole and figured his work on a wooden fire-shovel, whit- tling off the figures when it was full, and carrying on his work for about eighteen hours a day. Graham urged him earnestly to be more moderate and not overdo himself, lest he might injure himself in a way that would last a life- time. Lincoln assured him that he need have no uneasiness whatever concerning him; that he knew the limits of his powers, mind and body; that they had never been over- reached, and that it was usual for him to work and study sixteen, sometimes twenty, hours a day. It was in this way that he, with his kind friend's indis- pensable help, studied out, learned, and performed many of the examples on measured lands, fitted and qualified himself for the work of surveying, and reported himself ready for work to surveyor Calhoim in six weeks' time. It may not be surprising to be able to study out the business and as much of art as may be useful in the work of surveying; but it was unusual, and still is, for a man to take it up under favorable circumstances, and make himself as capable in a year. It was proof not only of talent, but of the tireless, persevering spirit of a young man who was sure to succeed if he lived. He became Calhoun's deputy, and was soon recognized and known to be a capable and accurate surveyor. It gave him ready means for living and a little start in life, the first of consequence after his misfortune. He was called on for work in every part of Sangamon and in some adjoining coun- ties, giving entire satisfaction during the whole of Calhoun's term of 1833-34, and during part of that of his successor, Neale, whose deputy he was in 1835 and part of 1836. In THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 179 this latter year he was examined and passed as fully qualified and wotthy, and took up the practice of law. In the spring of 1833, about the time he qualified himself a surveyor, he was appointed postmaster of his home village of New Salem. This was not much addition to his income, but the little helped. There was no salary to the office, and then as now the commissions on the amount of business done were as slender as the most experienced, highest- salaried official in the Post-office Department could figure them out or down; and still it was enough above nothing to induce some good-natured man in every neighborhood to keep it. The income did not average twenty-five dollars a quarter. It was only by the favor and help of some friends in the small village that he could keep the office, for he was often absent in his work of surveying as much as three to four days at a time. In this way the office was just so much added to his small means of living. He kept up his survey work assiduously, extending it in every direction he could through laudable methods of tendering and extending his services. He was a welcome guest in every neighborhood where his work called him. He employed help for the chain and stake-driving work in the locality of the survey, and helped the men along with their wage claims until paid. In his careful way of looking after everything in detail he was constantly making friends, numbers of whom volun- tarily assured him of their support whenever he might be a candidate. His work was well done and always brought to a satisfactory conclusion, as to metes, bounds, and corners, which was highly important to the settlers. The fees for the work were paid by the land-owners, except in the matter of locating roads, bridges, and public work, which was paid, after allowance, by the county. His fees for the work amounted to about three dollars a day. Ten days' work in a month was an average of time 180 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. employed. This, with the emoluments of the little post- office, brought in about forty dollars a month for the three years. If he could have had this income to himself, it would have been more than he would have used. It would have made many about him reckless and extravagant. It was a good income then, when competent men were satisfied with twenty-five to thirty dollars a month, and day wages were from fifty to seventy-five cents. The income made him more studious, careful, and economical. It kept him in the way of carrying and paying his bur- den of debt and interest, which he did without a murmur until it was all paid in 1849. It enabled him, also, to keep up his contributions for the help of his parents, a duty that was alwaj'S a pleasure to him, and the means of his own living for the time. In these years, under the direction of men as capable as university professors, he studied with all the zeal and inflexibility of determination and purpose that characterized him. He held the post-office until 1836, when he removed to Springfield, and it became his permanent home. Some re- marks were made at the time, why a Whig, one becoming prominent in his party, would hold office under so zealous a Democrat as Jackson? The office was small, mostly a con- venience for the people, as such as these are in our news- spreading postal S5'stem; nevertheless it was occasion for Lincoln's reply that he admired and honored General Jack- son; that he felt no restraint in holding the small office; that the hero of New Orleans filled the measure of a true American so well, and his later work for the integrity of the Union and the sanctity of our laws against the nullifiers endeared him to the people so much, that "I consider it," said he, "an honor to sustain a man of such high patriotic character, however I may differ with him on political questions." There was no incident in his career up to the time that THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 181 better revealed the knowledge he had of public affairs, his keen perceptions and his broad, liberal Judgment of men and the living issues of the time. It was significant fore- sight in his early appreciation of Jackson's contest with those who would disobe}^ and defy the laws of our country, and the approaching shadows of the mighty one in which he was to be another Jackson. He kept the little office, satisfied the postal authorities, was kind and obliging to the patrons, and in constant labor and industry he kept it, his surveyor's work, and his studies, all in co-operative support of his well-settled purpose to be a lawyer and a good one, as far as his powers and oppor- tunities would qualify him. It was said humorously that "he kept the office in his hat." He was one of the first to adopt the postal delivery system, and as the exercise was good for him, he took walks for exercise and delivered a great many of the letters. It became a pastime in -the close seclusion of his long hours of study and reading all the newspapers that came into the office. However it ma}' have been, he kept the village post- office, and did it well, until he removed to Springfield in the fall of 1836, when it was discontinued and faded from sight, as the little toM^n did when the settlers learned that the great, wide-spreading prairies could be successfuly culti- vated and towns built upon them. Some men said that "New Salem was made for Abe, and that it vanished when he put his knapsack on his back and walked down to Springfield to live." It was a saying that prevailed without dispute those days, that Lincoln's canvass for the Legislature in 1834 began in August, 1832, as soon as it was known that he was defeated. As mentioned, his work of surveying took him to all parts of the county. His hearty good will, his helpful, sympa- thetic nature that filled his heart and drew men to him like a magnet, made him hosts of friends wherever he went and 182 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. became acquainted. He was never anxious for public life; but after his defeat he became more anxious than he ever had been for the place. He had a way of knowing things and telling what he knew in an easy, off-hand manner, that seemed to come to him as natural and with as little trouble as he walked along a country road. The settlers, the pioneer farmers and those we called the country people, took to him with trust and confidence every time, and no little of the familiar "Honest Old Abe" came from those who had fatherly respect and confidence in him. He saw the drift of public opinion in his favor, and full of ambition to be elected to the office for which he had been defeated, he made friends, and good ones, wherever he went, in which time he learned something of his power to lead men. This grew and strengthened with him until the Nation learned the sort of man he was, and the spirit that was in him. He made speeches all over the county, and, as he said, "In that second canvass I learned that I could think, and stand on my legs and talk, just as the men about me were doing." There was not much of detail to the canvass; the candi- dates were making it more on the ground of fitness and personal merit than their knowledge of public and political questions. Up to that time there had been no party con- ventions to nominate or select candidates in the West. Those who assumed to be qualified for office usually con- sulted a few prominent people of their town or neighbor- hood, and after getting the approval of as many as they could and thought necessary, plunged into the political race and took their chances. Mr. Lincoln had grown in strength and capacity since his half-made canvass of 1832. He had reached twenty-five years. He had discovered the political power of the people, and he was wisely getting acquainted with them. Some un- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 183 informed writers have labored in a very discreditable sort of way to misrepresent the people among whom Mr. Lincoln grew to permanent and worthy distinction, writing of them as "coarse, ignorant rowdies, bullies, and ruffians, not half- civilized," and saying that when he rose in life and was elected to the Legislature, "his associations were with those of a better class, giving him self-respect from the improved relations." These statements are as senseless as their au- thors are ignorant and unworthy of belief in their attempts to string impudent slanders together against as worthy, noble-minded, and intelligent a body of people as God ever planted and prospered under the sun. If this assorted mess of conceit and slattern-built stories is to be taken for his- tory, men will have not only "wheels" but grindstones in their heads! The men among whom Lincoln came to manhood in Cen- tral Illinois were intelligent, hard-working, honest, and hos- pitable. They loved him for his great, open heart and his clear-headed insight into the cause of his fellow-men. God and these sturdy, honest people made him what he was, and "wdthout them there would have been no Lincoln. He loved them in return as man never loved a people better, and there never was a time when they did not sustain him in all their might and mind and strength, and responded to his calls with their loved ones, and "the blood of the first- born" of almost every family in the land. These "backwoods ignorant, uncouth ruffians of New Salem," and their fellow-settlers of the same kind of people, by the hundred thousand, built schoolhouses in every school district, and made the districts so small that the least of the children could get to school. These schoolhouses, too, became at once the church-houses and temples of the living God, where every Sunday, day and night, they were filled with intelligent, orderly people and their children, many of whom had the burden of a supposed "education" to forget 184 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. before they learned how to get intelligently at work in a new country and make a living, and that raising calves was a better business on farms than in colleges. The itinerants, elders, and deacons of that day made great sacrifices and endured many privations to serve and worship with those early settlers in their schoolhouses and log-cabin churches, and taught as pure and unselfish a gospel as ever fell from the lips of men. These people need no defense. Thousands of them and their descendants still live in the limits whereon the great reformer of his age rose up in justice and right to represent them, and other thousands of them and like-minded men have pressed forward with unyielding faith and heroism in their work until our civil- ization broadens on the Pacific, and better hope for human liberty gladdens the earth. Among this widespread body of free and sensible people there are not many as destitute of the knowledge and the facts concerning the character and habits of the early settlers of Central Illinois as these writers; they built up and developed their part of the great West, and are scarcely different from the greater multitude of the strongest, brightest, and equally intelligent Amer- icans, who have builded up and civilized the continent. They need no more than a truthful story of their faith, their work, and their progress. But what need, these histories? Major Stuart was a candidate for re-election in 1834. Mr. Lincoln submitted his desires to him first, as he did not wish even apparently to antagonize him, because their friend- ship was sincere. Stuart not only approved his again being a candidate, but, with Judge Logan, encouraged him to make the canvass, and to make it as earnest and persevering a one as possible. At this time these two men were the best informed of any in their county of his merits and abilities, and encouraged him not alone because of their friendship for him, but in recognizing him then as a young man of great promise. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 185 His canvass was made; he followed Logan's advice, for he believed in him, and it was a sober, earnest presentation of what he knew of public affairs. He was in every part of the county, and came to a knowledge of his powers and to control them as a debater and public speaker. He was elected. The poll was: Lincoln, 1,376; Dawson, 1,370; Car- penter, 1,170; Stuart, 1,164, This was one of his well-earned distinctions, and opened the way for his progress, and marked a distinct era in his life. At the time Vandalia, a small town some sixty-five miles southeast of Springfield, was the capital of the State, and was for several years after this, being nearer the center of population. In the Legislature he soon made himself agree- able with the members and leading men who habitually attended the sessions. With his general knowledge, easy ad- dress, kind nature, plain running speech, and memory that seldom forgot a face or a name, he was soon a favorite and as well liked as he had been by all in his home at New Salem. He had little to do as a legislator during his first term. He did well to make the favorable acquaintance and the agreeable impression, that all who knew him conceded with- out question. Leadership came to him without caucusing or any plan of "fixing up things," and so unopposed and smoothly, that Governor Keynolds said: "As soon as he got his bearings, got acquainted, and found how things were drifting, he took the Legislature good-naturedly by the nose, and led them, just like he did his township on the Sangamon." He supported resolutions requesting Congress to set aside all sums arising from the sale of public lands to be ex- pended in internal improvements, Illinois was then a "dyed- in-the-wool," Jackson Democratic State, and remained one of the loyal and most reliable States to that party until the disruption following what were called the "Compromise ]\Ieasures of 1850." He was never a very strict partisan, but 186 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. always a liberal-minded politician, who was never controlled by narrow or strictly partisan policy. As a legislator he was supported cordially by men of all parties, and as their representative his conduct was entirely satisfactory, as shown in the fact that he had no opposition and was returned a member as long as he could afford to hold the place. He was as a representative what would be called an in- dependent now. Later, when party lines were strictly drawn on questions of conscience and what he believed to be right, he was always an independent. Nevertheless, he was a man of positive, well-considered, and strongly-held political be- liefs, or he would not have affiliated and become a Whig leader when young in a State so certainly Democratic as Illinois was and promised to be. In his early political career, when his opinions were forming and his purposes strengthening, he was not much of a partisan. His ideal statesman was Henry Clay, whom he believed in, followed, and almost venerated. The Whig party was led, on account of the many endearing qualities of the man, his strong personality, his magnanimity, and undeviating patriotism, to make him a leader more than because of any political belief he held or advocated. Lincoln was a believer in Clay without any sort of hesi- tation. At the same time he was an outspoken defender of Jackson, and admired the old hero in many ways as much as any Democrat. He believed in a moderate protective tariff, but studied and discussed it very little. He was not a believer in the old National Bank plan. He rarely discussed it, but was strongly inclined to the belief that Jackson did right in refusing to extend its charter. He was, with most of the Western men of his time, an enthusiast on internal improvements. Clay's cordial support of all such measures made him the popular "Harry of the West," and gave him the strongest hold on the people that he ever attained in his long and useful career. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 187 From the beginning of his public life, Lincoln possessed the high quality of independence, of conduct and character which in his progress became as necessary as the full use of all his talents and strength of mind. The session of 1834-35 was short, after which he returned to his work of keeping the little post-office and surveying. There was a special ses- sion of the same Legislature in 1835-36. Soon after the assembling a L^nited States senator was chosen to fill the vacancy caused by the death of E. K. Kane. Semple, regu- lar Democrat, and W. D. Ewing, independent Democrat, were candidates to fill the vacancy. Lincoln voted for Ewing, and he was elected by one majority. One of the important measures passed at this session was a new apportionment of the State, whereby Sangamon County's members of the House of Eepresentatives were in- creased from four to seven, and from one to two senators. Mr. Lincoln worked zealously for this, for with population pouring into the northern part of the State, a relocation of the capital became a strong probability. Mr. Lincoln received and deserved more credit for Sanga- mon County's increased representation in the Legislature than any other person; and he was everybody's candidate for re-election, for the capital removal had stirred up Spring- field, and the young man with such captivating and winning ways, who was making friends so fast, was the first name on every ticket. He was elected with that mark of leadership, but no other; for it was one of those remarkable elections in which "the offices went all around." There were nine members, two senators, and seven representatives to elect. There were nine candidates, and "the big nine," all robust, large men of six feet and more in stature, were elected. Mr. Lincoln announced himself as a candidate for re- election with more assurance and independence than before, and with more than any man in the State who had hopes or expectation of election; for there was not another man 188 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. known who would have declared himself in favor of female suffrage in any degree, and few, if any, of his party who were in favor of the three to five years' period of natural- ization, which the Democraitc party was then supporting. Mr. Lincoln's declaration was: "New Salem, June 13, 1836. "To the Editoi- of The Journal: "In your paper of last Saturday I see a communication over the signature, 'Many Voters,' in which the candidates who are announced in the Journal are called upon to 'show their hands.' Agreed; here's mine. "I go for all sharing the privileges of the Government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females). If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my constit- uents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. While acting as their representative I shall be governed by their will upon all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is, and upon all others I shall do what my own Judgment teaches me will best advance their interests. Whether elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of the sales of public lands to the several States, to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroads, without borrowing money and paying interest on it. If alive on the first Monday in No- vember, I shall vote for Hugh L. White for President. "Very respectfully, A. Lincoln." There was independence enough in this to favor meas- ures advocated by both political parties, and much beyond what was supported by either. There was boldness enough of assertion in it to have made him a leader in either party THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 189 after his election. He made no snch use of it, and had no design further than to make a clear statement of his beliefs on the subjects. No man ever sought or contrived less to make himself a leader. He never assumed or accepted any promotion, prominent place, or leadership until he knew that it had been con- sidered, where all concerned could be represented and he was unhesitatingly selected, as he was chosen to be captain of his company. He had, however, along with his clear, positive endowment, perception and foresight as great as any man. He could not help foresee approaching issues and events, which he usually did before his opponents or asso- ciates. WTien the causes were made up and the conclusions were ready to be carried out, no man was ever more unselfish. He turned over leadership and position to others when he had led movements to achievement many times, as he did on a memorable occasion to Lyman Trumbull, who was elected United States senator in 1854. He did generous- hearted acts like this so often and so cheerfully, that his nearest friends came to believe, and said: "Lincoln will never hold any high office or position such as he is entitled to by leadership and service. Wlien the work is done, and some one is to be selected to hold chief office or position, he yields all his rights and gives place to the most noisy and selfish; none others would force themselves in." In 1840 and 1848, when he was chief adviser in our State during two Whig Administrations, he could have had any one of the positions he desired, but received nothing, and helped as usual to make the best appointments possible and serve every every friend whom he could to the full extent of his opportunities. Li this he builded wiser than he knew, or any or all of his friends together knew; for when it became generally known how faithfully and zealously he served so many, while struggling along under debts and heavy responsibilities, it 190 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. suddenly enough came to ns that he had made a thousand friends for every opportunity he had relinquished or given away. Support and leadership came to him so firmly rooted in the affections of the people by service that every one could read and understand that he beame a conunoner, a repre- sentative man of the people and undisputed leader in the cause that set millions free and that saved the Union. There were many items of much importance taken up, discussed, and some of them passed by the Illinois Legis- lature in 1836-37. Mr. Lincoln had now become a known political quantity, a recognized leader. He had also come to a realization of his powers, and the knowledge of how to use them in all ways which interested or concerned him. As in jSTew York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, and some other States earlier, the subject of internal im- provements engTOssed the minds of the people in a fertile basin that was increasing in population more than fifty thousand every year. Many schemes were planned, pro- jected, and failed. More of them that should have ended the same way were chartered, and some of them were under- taken, in whole or in part, by the State. A canal from Lake Michigan to the head of navigation on the Illinois Eiver was one of the most generally approved and much desired im- provements. This canal enterprise, that the State half helped, fell into the hands of those whose chief design was not how best to make a very much-needed connecting waterway, but how to "make the biggest pile," and get safely away to some "financial center," where they could live unmolested on the produce of the State's stolen bonds. Thus the much-needed canal was not built, but the land was laid waste, and a few financiers were gorged with the people's millions for more than fifty years. If it had been constructed, finished, and put in operation, as well as the New York and Maryland half- made ditches then were, it would have been an enterprise THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 191 worthy the great and growing State; but it halted and dragged along some tedious years, ate "heaps of money," and "failed," as do many projected railroads and waterways that are liquidated in "taxes." These were planned and undertaken, not only in Illinois, but all over the nation, where what has been done without deliberation or calculation has loaded us down with the burden of paying taxes on five to ten miles of some kind of subsidized transportation route for every mile actually needed. Our Republic has given away States in area, that would have made farms and homes for twenty-five millions of contented, self-supporting citizens. With this recast before us, it does not appear strange that the State of Illinois, in its eagerness for improvements in that early day when it had none, gave away a canal and two or three railroads. The acts of legislation that these men passed, and that others have imitated and followed since, may force an unexpected turning over and destruction of values like plotted secession. The aggressive leaders of the slave-power lorded it in their way, in the Executive mansion, in the halls of Congress, and in the chambers of the Supreme Court. Their power, they reckoned and as- sured themselves, was secure when they counted their wealth in men as property up to two billions of dollars — values so immense and dazzling as to create an aristocracy and con- found the plain sort of people for awhile. The war came and went, and shattered properties and reduced values to ashes, as bursting bombs tear a city of glass to fragments. It wiped out of existence the sin and the value that existed in human flesh; and not alone the two billions or more at which it was valued, but over two billions' worth of other property in the war-blasted South, went down in the common ruin. With this fiery lesson fresh in remem- brance, is it not time for thoughtful men to pause and con- sider whether our present systems are not aggregating large 192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and sufficient snms of billions in the grasp of a few thou- sands, that will eventually bring a greater than the slave- holder's desolation, as much so as the present surpasses the values of 1860? When the subject is impartially taken up and considered, independently of any personal or partisan interest, or the enthusiasm born of such questions, calmly, carefully, soberly in the interest of mankind, in the spirit which the Creator designed, in full acknowledgment of his unlimited possession and absolute control of all that is and exists, is it not high time for the adoption of a policy that will return these sequestered properties, privileges, and fran- chises to the people? The absorbing topic, the one taking most of his time and attention, was Mr. Lincoln's special work for the session of 1836-37, that of the capital removal from Vandalia to Springfield, He was named and selected by all the partisans of his town as the leader. He took up the work, and in his persevering, never-giving-up way of doing things, made it his own business, forwarding it in every way as a public measure of increasing necessity. He wove himself into the favor and good graces of all concerned, in such good-natured way, with so much ease and confidence, that he soon had his favorite measure in a passable condition. It was an unusual rise for a man of his age, then only twenty-seven, with his scant experience, to be so selected when the town had several able men of greater age, training, and all the knowledge of the day as to how such enterprises should be managed. But by general approval, and against his desire or inclination, it came to him, and he undertook the work. Judge Logan, who was in every way qualified, and who would have been one of the most capable men to manage it for his people, said: "Lincoln was at the head of the project to move the State capital to Springfield; it was entirely intrusted to him to manage. The members were all elected on one ticket, and they were selected with a view to TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 193 their capacities on the question; but as soon as elected they all looked to Lincoln to lead." Many another burdened legislator has been tied down under the influence of some local measure in our remarkable country, that has located and built up so many enterprises in such a short period; but none were better if so well man- aged. It was a comparatively easy agreement to get a ma- jority to assent to removal from Vandalia, it was too far south. Herein he showed his capacity by getting a decided vote in favor of removal, when by adroit and skillful man- agement he united all the southern members on Springfield to prevent its being taken further north to Bloomington or Peoria. His personal influence had much to do in the settle- ment. Some capable men said it was the predominating force. One friend, writing of it several years afterwards, said: "There were several reasons given, but in reality we gave the vote to Lincoln, because we liked him, as almost every one of us did, and we wanted to oblige him, and in this way recognized his leadership." Those who knew his powers as a pleader before a jury afterwards in any cause he believed in and whicji aroused him, could easily understand the correctness of the above statement, that ''they wanted to oblige him." A member from Southern Illinois explained it briefly to his people, saying: "Lincoln convinced us that, with the present and prospective growth of population in the northern part of the State, we would do well to get the capital at Springfield, and not have it taken further north, as it was sure to be if it was delayed. He carried it through the Legislature, when no other man could have done it." When we consider presently some of the men who were in and about that last Vandalia session, and that the young man of twenty-seven was the chosen leader, and that he successfully carried the removal, we can form some idea of 13 194 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the strength and capacity of the coming leader. There were "rejoicing, enthusiasm, banquets, table oratory, spells of in- disposition and indigestion." The young man took little interest in any of this. He was in no way a beneficiary of his untiring labor and success, not even to the extent of a town lot. The public and the citizens of Springfield re- ceived the full benefit. The young man had won, had gained a head full of experience, lived in the capital city, was known, and the people in the courts and in trouble hunted him up. In this period and the generation following, this prairie State was planning for its first canal and railroads in 1835, and filled the world with the renown and the well-earned fame of the men who were raising the young man from the Sangamon to be leader, and lighting the fire of the genius that was to be revered with Washington, the Father of his Country. There were in and about that Vandalia session*; Lincoln; Stephen A. Douglas, less only than Lincoln, leader, statesman, the ablest man in his party, and who remained a leader after secession; Hardin, who was to fall at Buena Vista; General Shields, who was to be shot through the lungs at Cerro Gordo, and live and be a United States senator in Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri; and Edward D. Baker, who was to command an Illinois regiment through the war with Mexico, that resulted in the conquest that was to make the Republic continental in domain, and plant its flag and power on the Pacific, who became a senator from Oregon, where his talents and burning eloquence had much to do, along with the stricken Broderick, in saving the Pacific States to freedom, and a soldier in the war for the Union, whose blood at Ball's Bluff is another heritage for liberty and Union. There were, with these, Bissel and Forman, who were to lead brave Illinois regiments in the Mexican War — Bissel to become governor of Illinois, the first in line in 1856, a Democrat elected by a union of Republican and Demo- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 195 cratic votes on the basis of resistance to the arrogance of the slave power. There were hundreds of others who were to go with these colonels, promoted generals, senators and governors, and carry our flag in victory to the capital of Mexico, where they would win a peace that is a continuing benefit and bond of unity for both nations to this day. Of those who were to serve in civil and military life with honor, gallant courage, and devotion in the war for the Union, there were a full thousand in and about the session; for the capital-moving was an exciting topic that brought them thither. There Fas Yates, a tribune of the people, who was to become war-governor, following Bissel, with a father's feeling and care for every soldier mustered in, the friend, neighbor, and trusted adviser in every trouble of the young leader who was to be President, and himself in his age to be a senator from his State. There was Oglesby, young, brave, and daring, who was to be colonel, general, governor, and United States senator, one of the best and dearest of all the friends Lincoln ever had, who was to be wounded, pierced through the lungs, and despaired of in the fiery furnace at Corinth in 1862. He was not one of the least in that generation of worthy heroes who made the Republic worth living for, and came as near dying for it, as any wounded sufferer who lived. Lyman Trumbull was there, a talented, educated man, who was to succeed Shields in the United States senate in 1854, when Lincoln's organization of the "Anti-Nebraska Party" made it possible to elect a senator. David Davis, too, was there, the long-time friend and associate, whom Lincoln promoted from his district to the United States Supreme Court. There were, too, 0. H. Browning, John Wood, 0. M. Hatch, Jesse Dubois, Governor Edwards, Major Stuart, Judge Logan, the Herndon brothers, Joshua Speed, and Butler, making a full hundred Old-line Whigs, leaders of the conservative sort, so deliberate and so tinctured with the 196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. slavery miasm, that no less a leader could have taken these half-slavery believers into any party that would contend against it. Wentworth, of Chicago, and Cook, who had been in Con- gress with him for several terms, were there. S. W. Moul- ton, James Gillespie, and a hundred others, lifetime friends, but political opponents, were there. All these were there; and the task would be an endless one to bring present in short review the brave, bright men, scholars, students, gov- ernors, statesmen, leaders, senators, soldiers, and heroes, who directly and indirectly afterwards, but all cheerfully, in their might and will put their shoulders to the work in the proper time and wa}^ that made Lincoln a leader and started him on the road to future achievements. A ver}'' little reflection will convince us that there was something more than "an unlearned backwoods lawyer" in this young man who was made leader and chieftain of his own side to begin, and of both sides in the end, by com- mon consent, in a body and State full of as well learned, in- formed, and qualified men as any that ever planned, coun- seled, and fought for our country. There was a small, nervous, wiry, slender to thinness, bright, blue-ej^ed, keen-featured man from Bloomington, for a few days, at this Vandalia session, where he first met Lincoln. He formed for him an attachment such as he had for no other man. This continued constant and faithful throughout both of their lives. This citizen of Blooming- ton was a man of business, who never became a public per- son nor a politician. He never sought nor held office. He had been prominent in N'ew York before coming west. Although he took no apparent interest in public affairs, his insight and knowledge of the springs, currents, and forces that controlled and directed human action was so acute and complete that he was consulted wherever he was known. This small man that achieved fortune was one THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 197 of the most capable, strong, and indispensable of the home legion that eventually won the Presidency for Mr. Lincoln. This is the man who, if all the devoted, loving friends who followed and sustained the youth and man from New Salem and Vandalia in 1835 to Chicago in 1860 were gath- ered and given appropriate place, would stand in the front ranks — Asahel Gridley, of Bloomington. A few days before the close of the Vandalia session, the subject of slavery, in an indirect way, arose, was dis- cussed, resolved upon, and tenderly laid aside with a cen- sure upon "Abolitionists" by all except Lincoln and Dan Stone, another independent member from Sangamon, who, with him, was not there to be influenced or terrified by the lash or threat of the slave power. Thus, in the be- ginning of his career, at the threshold of his leadership, he was confronted by the strength and power of this slave system, the iniquity which God, in the majesty of his deal- ings with nations, was raising him to destroy — another David against a greater Goliath. His sincerity was tested. Would he stand firm in the session where he was asking and obtaining favors for his town, and be true to his convictions and solemn promises to God? Indeed he would, and did; and although the grow- ing State, which had barely been rescued from the blight, was denouncing Abolitionists, he was there to do his duty, and to enter his own and Dan Stone's protest against the system so plainly and unmistakably that all men would know it. Slavery came to the Colonies, a heritage of wickedness that grew through Britain's world-spreading commerce and lust of gain. It was planted and fastened on our soil with as little regard for the laboring men in the settlements as for the half-^vild men captured and shipped to our shores like beasts. Slavery has been the same in all ages — a crime against mankind, scarcely less tolerable than murder, which any free people or independent men would die resisting 198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. rather than submit to. It was a disturbing cause in the Colonies, a greater one in the formation of the new nation under our Constitution, in which it was tolerated and indi- rectly dealt with. Men with hare arms, who live by their industry, have seldom the time, and never the means, for scheming that those who live on the products of other men's labor always have. So it was that this slave system planned for and ex- tended its area, fastening its clutches deeper in the vitals of the Eepublic every year. It exacted compromises and agree- ments, one after another, that were to be disregarded, and compelled the making of new ones whenever more com- plete domination or more domain could be added. Thus it grew and strengthened in the patient fortitude of sin that could plan and wait and grow for generations. Its projectors controlled Congress, courts, and Administra- tions until they were almost ready for the long-expected declaration that slavery existed by right of law in every State and Territory of the Union. The Supreme Court did, in the Dred Scott decision, establish the power and domination of the slave-owner as far as its interpretation of the Constitution and laws would allow. This was the condition of the free Republic from 1856 to 1860, when the slave-power lacked little, if anything, more than permanence and the use of the forces they were gathering to extinguish free government and found their aristocracy. But God and his thousands who had not bowed down to the Moloch that was binding us rose up in their might against it. In our progress we must deal with slavery and the vault- ing schemes and ambitions of its defenders, who thrived and governed so many years in the peril of its threatening and destroying powers. It was not only a vexing, cruel wrong as a beastly exercise of strength in robbing the en- slaved man of his God-given rights, but it carried with it THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 199 other evils, wider and farther-reaoliing. It set itself up in competition against our millions of free men, plundering them indirectly of sums vast enough to have paid, every year, the conjectured value of one and one-half billion dol- lars held in slaves. If we are to know Mr. Lincoln and the condition of the people at the time, how they prospered or suffered, and what were the obstacles in his and their way, we must reach our conclusions and make up our judg- ment on a knowledge of the truth and the facts. As we have related, at the time when this session of the Legislature of Illinois was held, the dominant Democratic party of the Nation, under direction of Jackson's Demo- cratic Administration, commanded the weak, obedient Legislatures of free as well as of slave States to abridge free speech and free discussion on the slavery question. It denounced all men who were opposed to their labor- crushing system as "violators of law and order, disturbers of the peace, dangerous people, and abolitionists," which meant, in plain speech, that all who had the courage and independence to speak or write their opinions, and defend them, were to be suppressed in some effectual way. Jackson was a brave, patriotic man, who believed in the integrity of our country. In the exercise of these worthy, statesmanlike views and purposes he crushed out "nullifi- cation," the most determined intrigue and encroachment of the slave propaganda before that of 1860. He was, person- ally, a believer in slavery. Nevertheless he used all his power to suppress its schemes and prevent disruption of the Union. When this was done, it gave hope and encour- agement to the healthy anti-slavery sentiments of the people. It aroused them to a realization of their rights in all the free States and many districts in the slave States. It brought on a general, free discussion of the system that laid bare its iniquities so clearly and distinctly that, al- though there were difficulties and attempted degradation 200 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and dishonor t(3 "Abolitionists/' men opposed to slavery and brave enough to tell it, from Boston to St. Louis and from Washington to Milwaukee the voice of the people was never quenched until the monster vice went down in ruin, with hundreds of thousands of innocent victims un- der its Satanic load. Jackson, seeeing the injury wrought against "the insti- tution" by free speech, and harassed by importunate, short- sighted beneficiaries, was led to use his great power and influence, and that of his party and Administration, to suppress free speech. The crafty plan prevailed in part, and the Illinois Legislature passed the routine sort of reso- lutions against "Abolitionists as dangerous disturbers of the peace and plotters against the rights and property of the people of the Southern States, secured under the Con- stitution," and calling upon "all orderly, law-abiding people to have nothing to do Avith them." The desired effect of these resolutions was to ostracize and gibbet for public condemnation those men who be- lieved that slavery was wrong. Abraham Lincoln and Dan Stone, the only two men in the session not maimed by the blight of the institution, made the following protest, and had it read and entered on the journal: "Eesolutions having passed both branches of the Gen- eral Assembly at its present session on the subject of do- mestic slavery, the undersigned hereby protest against the passage of the same. "We believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy, but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate its evils. "We believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the in- stitution of slavery in the different States. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 201 "We believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District. "The difference between these opinions and those con- tained in the above resolutions is our reason for entering this protest. A. Lincoln, "Dan Stone, "Kepresentatives from the County of Sangamon." From this time forward Lincoln made a constant con- test against slavery and oppression. He was a leader be- fore this, made so on other issues. This open defiance would, it was truthfully said, have ruined the political pros- pects of any other man ; but the Master was caring for him, and his courage and independence strengthened him, and more firmly established him in his leadership. CHAPTER IX. THE intention and desire of the wise men who formed our Government under the Constitution was to adopt a lenient policy on the question of slavery, and, with- out provoking antagonism, to provide in every possible way by legislation and example for its gradual extinction. This was the conclusion of statesmen and soldiers who had fought out to a successful conclusion the right to estab- lish a free and independent nation, but who, although rec- ognizing the injustice of slavery, did not think it prudent or feel able for the task of eradicating it to begin with, which would have been the best policy. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, the Adamses, Hamilton, Samuel Eandolph, and a host of such men, in the free and slave States alike, believed in the wisdom of that policy, and set the good example of liberating their slaves in the course of one or two decades after the adop- tion of the Constitution. The anti-slavery sentiment was so strong, and the desire for gradual emancipation was so general, that Virginia, in 1787, in its cession of the great Northwest Territory to the United States, out of which have been formed and admitted to the Union the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, provided as one of the conditions of this cession that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of this Territory, except for the punishment of crime." Notwithstanding the lenient policy and the wisdom and unselfish patriotism of the men whose highest ambition was to establish a free Government for all men, proving their 202 THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 203 sincerity in the liberation of thousands of slaves, and dedi- cating all the territory over which they had control to free- dom, the succeeding generation of Southern planters real- ized the enormous profits which could be made out of the production of tobacco, rice, sugar, and cotton with slave labor. Their moral convictions were relaxed, the teach- ings of their fathers and the fathers of the country and the judgment of civilized men were abandoned and dis- regarded. Then, by a common understanding among them and the tacit agreement of the slaveholding class, without argument, contract, or bond, other than corresponding prom- ise of wealth, community of interest and control, regardless of human ideas of right or justice, a new era dawned upon them. From the beginning of the last century — 1801 — the slave propaganda came into existence — not strong at first, but gathering strength and adherents by the thousand every year. Because of its immense profits, the system embraced and spread over half the States and the new Territory of the Union at the close of the Louisiana purchase, in 1803. The people became truly alarmed at the spread and ag- gregating strength of the blighting, inhuman system, which the fathers of the country and the people of the free States believed had been placed in a condition for and sur- rounded with limitations that put it in process of ultimate extinction. The liberty-believing people of the Nation and their friends throughout the civilized world were aroused from their mistaken security when, from the Louisiana purchase forward to 1820, they learned that the slave-power and its dominion had grown so great as to be almost able to take possession of every department of the Federal Government. Henry Clay, the great leader of the Whig party, came into public life early in the century, in 1806, and, though not elected President in either 1834, 1828, or 1844, when nominated by his party, he was for forty-five years one of 204 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the strongest and most influential men of his time. Ken- tucky was loyal to him throughout his long career, electing and re-electing him to the United States Senate and House of Eepresentatives for almost the entire period. On the slavery question he Avas always a compromiser, a peace- maker, and a sincere pacificator, and with his followers did procrastinate the inevitable conflict. But he, and thou- sands of the men of the Middle, Western, and Border States, as they were known, were deeply devoted to and earnest in their support of an impossible plan for the settlement of the conflict between slavery and freedom. They lacked insight, knowledge, and courage to declare and abide by the truth known of men for ages, since Christ declared, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to deso- lation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." (Matt, xii, 25.) A great many well-intentioned people doubted, shrank back, and were much alarmed when Mr. Lincoln announced the above underlying truth and applied it to the conditions confronting the J^ation. He was right, as the men who are fearlessly on the side of right and justice always are. Mr. Clay was always in favor of a system of gradual emanci- pation, which was tolerated by the slave lords as a harmless device, but was never more in reality than a deceptive dal- liance. Mr. Clay, however, honestly and urgently recom- mended it to his State on its admission into the Union, and on several occasions afterwards, notably at the time of the adoption of the Compromise Measures of 1850. He was then near the close of his distinguished career, when his ambitious desires had all given way to impartial and un- clouded judgment, but when, even under this strong de- sire and pleading of their wisest statesmen, they had never considered his plan more than a deception. His life was a singular and eventful one, full in the surging tide of ex- cited factions threatening and preparing for war, while he THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 205 remained the calming element against advancing anti-slav- ery sentiment and the bulwark against which the hot-headed slave-leaders lashed in anger for almost fifty years. He was a man of commanding presence and ability, magnetic to the degree that he won respect from all parties — a man who, in his full sway, "had to be fought or followed, or fought and hated," as the passioned, nervous, little John Eandolph often said, and as General Jackson, no doubt, long wished for an opportunity to do. Mr. Clay held slaves, and was a moderate believer in the system of slavery. He was sustained in high office for his lifetime by his slave State. He was never trusted or counseled by the slave-extenders or the slave propaganda, as it came to be called when better known and understood. He was never called to advise or participate in its plans, pur- poses, or management; but he and all the compromisers of the time — among whom, with Clay far in the lead, were Benton, Crittenden, Van Buren, General Scott, Douglas, and, in the end, Webster — these were partially trusted and expected to make piecemeal, slavery-encroaching compromises with all parties, to restrain and suppress as far as possible the freedom-believing people, while the slave-system was mak- ing such anstonishing progress that they obtained national supremacy from the adoption of the miserable compromise concessions to slavery in 1850 until the free men of the land rose in mighty strength and swept the peace-at-any- price statesmen, time-servers, doubters, pigmies in courts, imbeciles, hypocrites, and traitors from administration and power, and restored the Republic to God and the rights of man. The Clay compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri, a slave State, one of the largest in area to that time, with its north line of boundary at 40 degrees and 30 minutes, a line north of Springfield, 111., Indianapolis, Ind., and Columbus, Ohio. The encroachment thus made extended slavery hundreds 206 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of miles north of the old "Mason and Dixon's line," the north line of Maryland and the Ohio Eiver west, north of which, it had been long and generally agreed to from the adoption of the Constitution, that it should never be ex- tended. This raised objections, earnest opposition, and resist- ance that came very near an open conflict. Seeing it so im- minent. Clay, in his masterly, persuasive way, calmed the agitation, and finally effected the celebrated compromise, by which Missouri was admitted without restriction against slavery, with another solemn engagement on the part of the slave power that slavery should never be extended or introduced into any territory of the United States north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, corresponding with the south line of Missouri. Hence, in the first generation following the establish- ment of the Government, slavery not only did not enter into a process of "gradual extinction," which it was ex- pected to do, but was far ahead in all newly-acquired terri- tory, gaining strength and headway under a determined policy of rapid expansion. This compromise, so solemnly declared, over which so much earnest discussion was had for two years, and in which passion so nearly provoked the impending conflict, settled nothing so far as the future was concerned. Mis- souri, another slave State, was admitted with its political power; and the gateway for the extension of slavery was opened into the great Northwest. It is true that, to get Missouri admitted, the slave-owners agreed that their sys- tem should not be extended north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes ; but, to get the new State in, they violated another as well- understood and inviolable agreement not to extend it north of the already fixed northern slave boundary. It is per- plexing now to believe that anti-slavery people were so often deceived by the conditions about them and the oft- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 207 broken promises of the slave-extensionists to restrict their system. They were not deceived, but were peacefully-dis- posed men, who truly dreaded the responsibility and re- sults of war, and suffered the wrongs and indio;nities of the slave-propagandists for two generations rather than see the land plunged into the horrors and direful calamities of civil war. They were not deceived by the promises or the ''sacred" engagements of leaders debased by such a system, nor should people ever be by men or monarchs who live and thrive on the products of other men's unrewarded toil. To such persons a compromise or forced agreement mostly gives opportunity to take all they can get, regardless of promises, agreements, or bonds for the future, as the slavery leaders did. They invariably took all they could squeeze out of every "final settlement" of the slavery question; at the same time they strengthened the turbid system by brow- beating barbarism, broken and violated treaties and con- ventions, crafty seizures, and war. All the while plausible pleaders like Calhoun, Clay, and poor, broken-down Webster, were harranging courts and senates "for the slaveholders' rights under the Constitution." It was, when constructed in the light of its framers, a triily sacred foundation law of government, made by men who would not pollute its fair escutcheon with the name of slave. Disregarding all that had been done to rid the Nation of the world-recog- nized curse, the slave power forced all compromisers to plead for its "rights," as if rights could arise out of the act of a despot, who stole a man, and sequestered him and his earnings and that of his descendants ever afterwards. Men and women were sold and bartered, husbands and wives separated, little children taken from their mothers' breasts, when it was convenient or profitable to the owner. They were brutes and chattels under the law and in the market, and much worse in the dreaded slave-pens. This horrid system, originating in despotic right, perpetuated in 208 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. nothing better, was borne and suffered until patriotic Chris- tian men tore off its hellish fetters, and released all, even the slaveholders, from their sin that was eating out the heart of a free people and leading us to inexcusable desertion of human rights. It was beginning in us the work of decay, that has extinguished more than a hundred nations that have for- gotten God and the rights of his people. Slavery not only took the unrewarded toil of the black man under the lash, but, like all brutal and unjust systems, which can only exist in the exercise of some wrongfully-used force, this cruel system of brutal injustice came to be sustained, protected, and defended by every Government in the land — ^municipal, State, or National. All had to be brought under the con- trol of the slave regime, defended, not only in protection of the polluted ownership of men, but in the suppression of all speech or writing against it. It usurped and perverted authority, used slander, innuendo, or ridicule, arrested and imprisoned many for "made-up" offenses, and, with the help of coarse, brutal men, broke up public meetings held to consider and discuss the system as it affected them under our reputed free Government. To do this it employed those who were as vile in ruffianism as slavery was old and steeped in vice. They had hirelings to lead riots, as in Boston, against Phillips and Garrison; and, worse, to murder heroes, as it did Elijah P. Lovejoy at Alton, Illinois, in 1837. It would be a strange and almost unbelievable story to recount the persecutions, wrongs, and outrages inflicted on disbeliev- ers, abolitionists, and all men brave enough to contend against slavery in the free States. There was no kind of business, industry, or profession that the obnoxious interference or persecuting venom of slave-owners did not reach. The public press could only print or publish what they approved. Newspaper presses were silenced, burned, or thrown in the river, quietly, as THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 209 Lovejoy's was. Wherever possible, college teachers, instruc- tors of all kinds, and ministers of Christ's gospel, were com- pelled to affirm and teach "the Divine right of slavery," and authenticate the "Scriptural authority" for its existence and continuation. John C. Calhoun entered Congress from South Carolina shortly after Henry Clay did from Kentucky, about 1811. He gathered and united under his leadership the promi- nent men in the slave States, and, with his high capacity, organized the slave propagandists as a body politic, a self- contained power, purposely independent of and unconnected with any political party from the beginning. It was a body in existence without records, forms, or codes to interfere with or trammel it in work or action, consolidating and using the whole political strength of the entire slave section. It existed on the authority of a ruling class, a high aristocracy. Its aggregated power was the sum of all the powers of all the slave States in unity, without a break in the line. Its control was supreme, acting finally under the determined will of the one trusted leader, who, for the time, exercised the prerogatives of a despot. Its policy was comprehensive, positive, and severe. Wliere complete control prevailed, its punishments were merciless, and States, cities, and people were as thoroughly Russianized as Warsaw. In its forty-five years, from 1830 to 1865, it had two chief leaders only — Calhoun, who organized it, and Jeffer- son Davis, under whom it perished. During its time it was served by many men of high personal integrity and honor in their dealings with each other and the few whom they held to be equals. Thousands of them were men of courage, intelligence, and distinguished ability as citizens, soldiers, and statesmen. But the cursed system, which held them all as servitors whenever and wherever required, made them play the dissimulation of free representative Government; while industry, in competition with unpaid 14 210 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. labor, was perishing, and ignorance was spreading, and men were retrograding under its relentless, despotic rule. The Democratic party claimed its origin in Jefferson's declarations, that "all just Governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed." That all Governments should be founded on this basis, and that the people are, and should be, the custodians of all power, and that in every way it was the party of the people as against aggrandized wealth, power, or prerogative, were all empty forms to the slave-leaders, with their "domestic system" to protect. Their paramount object in law and politics was to keep their millions in secure bondage. With full knowledge of the strength of the Democratic organization, they took ab- solute control of it in every slave State soon after President Jackson's last term, in 1837. Illinois was admitted as a free State in 1818. The senti- ment among its early settlers was strong against slavery. Many of these people, however, although they had been virtually driven from the slave States by the ruinous com- petition of slave labor, when they became prosperous in the rich lands of the new State, became advocates of the slave-system. A number of others listened to the se- ductive arguments of these pro-slavery advocates. Some local leaders from Kentucky and Tennessee came over to their relatives and friends to help and to lead them in the effort to make it a slave State. They had been strengthened and stimulated by the admission of Missouri as a slave State in 1880, so much so that the local slave-leaders made a two years' effort, using every argument, persuasion, and influence in their power to make Illinois a slave State, notwithstanding the prohibitory clause of the cession of the Northwest Territory by Virginia and its acceptance by all parties concerned. The influences this created were so strong that several slaveholders came to the State with their slaves. It was THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 211 estimated at the time, and for several years afterwards, until in the '30's, that as many as two hundred slaves were held in various parts of the State, The local influence in the neighborhoods was so strong against agitators and Abolitionists that many of these black people were held as slaves, some as late as 1840. The design to make it a slave State, regardless of every interest, promise, or engagement, had such strength that a resolution providing for a vote for and against a Constitutional Convention passed the Legis- lature in 1823. The pro-slavery people supported the call for a Conven- tion. The anti-slavery people took up the contest with such vigor and energy that the Conventionists were confounded. It became a campaign of argument, determination, and edu- cation. The schoolteachers, almost in a body, rose up against the cursed evil. Men gave their time and money; and in many towns and townships these anti-slavery meet- ings were addressed by ministers, teachers, public men, and farmers. The anti-slavery people made an earnest campaign against the scheme, and determined to defeat it. They dis- tributed literature in large quantities, and had it printed and circulated in every voting district in the State. Gov- ernor Edward Coles, late from Virginia, went into the work with all his energy against it, contributing his time and two years' salary. The contest was a vigorous one, carried on by both parties with all the energy and resources at their command. The anti-slavery people prevailed, to the great good and lasting honor of the State. The proposed Convention was decisively beaten by a majority of eighteen hundred in a vote of something less than twelve thousand. Thus the State was saved, and probably the Nation, from a blight that would have destroyed both. These incidents, following in succession, made at every 212 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. opportunity for the strengthening or spread of their insti- tution, show the dogged perseverance and pertinacity of the slave propaganda, which hesitated at no obstacle, either law, territorial right, or even life, when success appeared attainable. The people of Illinois, although full of the spirit, energy, and daring of pioneers, were withal a law- abiding and conservative community. Their toleration of slavery had origin in the protection given it in the States which so many of them emigrated from. The pro-slavery leaders took advantage of this to arouse their indignation against every one speaking or writing against slavery as a "disturber of the peace and agitator," and the crowning condemnation of stigmatizing them as "Abolitionists." These slow-going people in all changes of law or custom, although anti-slavery in belief, would have remained neu- tral. They believed in letting slavery alone in the States where it existed. To them it had the strength and sup- port of the law with which the people of the slave States were content to abide. They believed it to be a question of right for those States to sanction and sustain slavery under authority of what they understood as control over domestic institutions and to regulate them, and that the States held such power under the Constitution. Hence to these con- servative, war-dreading people "Abolitionism" or interfer- ence with slavery in a slave State was an offense against law and order, deserving the severe punishment of the law as much as other violations and disobedience of it. With the gTeat body of the people, respecting slavery because it ex- isted under form of law in the slave States, and over one- third of them positively in favor of slavery in their State, as shown by the vote of 1823, we can get at the bottom of the feeling against agitators and Abolitionists," under which anti-slavery people were condemned. This was the condition of affairs when the great slavery leader, Calhoun, with aides and helpers, were organizing THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 213 and strengthening the slave power under one management. It was a time when prudent, conservative men, as they were called in those days — such as Stuart and Logan, of Spring- field, with whom Mr. Lincoln studied law; Judge David Da- vis, of Bloomington; 0. H. Browning, of Quincy; Col. Har- din, of Jacksonville, and others, all Old-line Whigs; and Judge Douglas, Richardson, of Quincy; Wentworth, of Chi- cago; General James Shields, Lyman Trumbull, Judge Breese, and others. Democrats, and thousands of the most prominent and respected in both parties — ^believed that agi- tation of the slavery question, especially as it existed in the States, was a great wrong, and that persons engaged in it were dangerous disturbers of the peace — men who were en- titled to no legal protection. With public opinion resting upon such a basis, it can be better understood why a man like Lovejoy was mobbed, and two printing presses belonging to him were destroyed, and he was deliberately murdered on his own premises, while no one of the murderers was ever arrested or tried for the offense. It appears plain, also, why none but Lincoln and Stone of the entire Illinois Legislature of 1834-35 had the courage to resist or oppose the fulmination of Jackson's pro-slavery Administration, discharged against disbelievers in the slave system. It was not long after Calhoun's disruption ^vith Jackson in 1831-32, and his rapid recovery from it, that he pushed for- ward with more energy than ever every measure that would enlarge or strengthen the dominion and extent of the domain of slavery. The invasion of the Territory of Texas was begun as early as this period of 1831-33. It was taken and held, finally, as far west as the line of the Eio Grande, a territory equal to five large States in area, when the pre- dominating purpose of every Democratic Administration, from Jackson in 1834 to Polk in 1845, was to acquire it as a balancing-power against the admission of free States. 214 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. It seemed National destiny and wise policy eventually that brought Texas into the Union; but it was a plain example of bringing good out of evil, as God often does in controlling, guiding, and circumventing the best-laid schemes of men. Texas, as slave territory, was not needed, except to count and balance against freedom. Without slavery, under wise management and free institutions, it has resources to be- come the equal of any area or nation, ^vith five or more mil- lions of independent, prosperous people. Under Calhoun's management, the Democratic party, which, in every part of the Nation, had been organized, builded up, and was the party of the people, as against all encroachments of wealth and power, gained complete as- cendency in the slave States. Hence it became their instru- ment in all their schemes for projecting, advancing, holding, and protecting their power. In doing this it reached and enforced supremacy, defeating and politically destroying every man who would not yield fealty to it and become a menial in its dastard work. In its power it compassed and achieved the downfall, defeat, and humiliation of the best and brightest of its own party for more than a generation, and, with them, all those in the "Whig party who pandered or trafficked with it, or who ever expected more than a diet of husks from it. In its cruel reign, it not only emascu- lated, dissevered, and left languishing and dying the great party of the people, with its high hopes, noble ambition, and the most perfect discipline of any body that ever served and struggled for mankind, but it took down, in its remorseless tyranny and unpitying malice, the best men of the Nation. It stranded and wrecked statesmen like Benton, Cass, Silas Wright, Marcy, Preston, Blair, Doug- las, Winfield Scott, Webster, and Clay. It also toyed, daw- dled with, and led whithersoever it would its Pierces, Brights, Touceys, Buchanans, and the inventoried dwarfs THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 215 and tailored ornaments of Cabinets and rostered lists of the pay-rolls, as Franklin did with his kites. When Lincoln returned to New Salem from his term of service in the Legislature he had become a celebrity. The little village was fading as its chief citizen was rising; but there were many good people in it and its little neighbor- hood who were faithful, as they had always been, to Abe, the youth who rose to lasting fame and deserved leadership with their unanimous wish and every help they could give him. To-day, no doubt, if there is one of them alive, the memories of the past, fathers, mothers, or descendants, they keep their traditions, and treasure in their hearts the almost sacred remembrances of the time and the unselfish patriotism that made them all as one man in "starting Abe Lincoln" on his forward road, from the little village of New Salem to the mountain-tops of eternal light. About the time of his removal to Springfield in 1836, there was a gathering of the neighborhood and village where they were building a new bridge. When the hard work was over, there was something of a feast, merry-makings, trials of strength, and other sports, and then, as now, too much drinking — too much then, surely; for their raw whisky was only ten to fifteen cents a gallon, and, as usual then on such occasions, they had a barrel of it. Among those pres- ent was a man of powerful build and strength, as he must have been to be a champion among a hundred, nearly all six feet in stature, and well proportioned. This later Achilles was over six feet in height, strong, and weighed two hundred pounds. Heavy green logs were sawed in two- foot lengths, corded and boxed at the ends, and supplied with rope handles. The load was piled up to one thousand pounds dead weight, with a strong platform above it, on which the lifter stood. "Sam," the champion, mounted the pedestal where all could see, slightly bent forward, with 216 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. every muscle forced and straining, and every nerve sustain- ing and holding him together, and lifted the monster load six inches from the ground. There was applause and a feeling of relief; for the man was overstrained. He had done this with little preparation and no unusual training; for athletics was not a system there. Mr. Lincoln warmly congratulated, him on his suc- cess, and was about leaving, when his towering form by the side of the man called attention to his own lifting and ex- ercise of strength in saving the flatboat and its cargo a very few years before, very near the bridge they were building. No excuse would satisfy them. "You must show us what you can do." Although, as one of them related, "He was always shifty and could get out of any tight place, and told us he was out of practice, and had been shut up and housed all winter, nothing would do, and I believe, just to keep us all in good humor, he stepped onto that platform, and lifted the load a clear foot from the ground without a grunt and without any straining." Some of the champion's friends halloed out: "Do it again! We didn't see it good." Mr. Lincoln, to satisfy these, stepped on the platform again in a few minutes, saying, as he did so, "Sam, sit down on top of the pile," which he did. Then Abe raised the big load, with Sam on it, almost as easy as he did the first time. The bung was knocked out of the barrel of whisky. Be- ing challenged again, he took hold of it by the chines over the end, raised it at arm's-length, took a mouthful of liquor from the open bunghole, turned his head to the right, and spit it out on the ground over his shoulder. On laying the barrel on the ground, he said in substance, as he related it years afterwards, when invited to drink, as he often was, "That reminds me of the first temperance lecture I ever made," and then, after relating the above incident, he con- tinued: "My friends, you will do well and the best you can with it to empty this barrel of liquor on the ground as THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 217 I threw the little part of it out of my mouth. It is not on moral grounds alone that I am giving you this advice: but you are strong, healthy, and rugged people. It is as true as that you are so now that you can not remain so if you indulge your appetite in alcoholic drinks. You can not retain your health and strength if you continue the habit, and when you lose them, neither you nor your children are likely to regain them. As a good friend, without counting the distress and wreckage of mind, let me advise, that if you wish to remain healthy and strong, turn it away from your lips." It will appear, as we progress, that Lincoln was formed and grew to mighty strength and power and control in a mold that shaped and fashioned him, and grew the bones and flesh of a man to the power of a giant, making the groundwork on a perfectly-developed human frame the best that could be in length, form, weight, and facilities for mo- tion, in attachments and smoothly-working limbs and Joints, in tendons, sinews, and muscles, all ready in all their grasp- ing and retaining strength, and all at the service and com- mand of his will. Lincoln was almost a perfect man in build and mold, one that was truly majestic; and in this strong-bodied, great- souled man there was proof that God made him in his own image, and that all his strength, endurance, and the full powers of his mind were necessary for the great work before him. He was given an endowment of wisdom and physical greatness equal to the difficulties and trials he was to meet, contend with, and overpower, avouching the truth that when our race gets ready for a forward movement in the cause of right and justice, the man to lead will appear. CHAPTER X. IT was at the sessions of the Illinois Legislature at Van- dalia, in 1836-37, that Mr. Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas met and became well acquainted. These men, growing up to manhood, leadership, and merited distinction together, were soon to be the contending leaders of the great parties of the time. These two men of marvelous powers with the people of their State, struggling along together and against each other to be more distinguished in the ISTation and in their State, have never had the course of their lives and leadership and their relations to each other properly and temperately laid before the people of our day for calm, impartial, and deliberate consideration. It has obtained too much that they were antagonists and no more; therefore enemies, as similarly situated men, North and South, frequently became in the progress of discussion and disputes that ripened into war. There was contention between these master leaders. It was all that these two able men could make it, in strength, fervor, and determination, to sustain the legality, fairness, and justice of the cause, and retain the leadership of the pretty evenly-divided bodies of Americans, the parties that followed them. In vindication of truth and the memories of two such noble-minded men, it must be said that no matter how exciting the discussion became, nor how warmly and earnestly they contended, their discussions were never unpatriotic, nor cause for a single break in the true friend- ship that existed between them from their first well-made acquaintance at Vandalia. 218 I' ( ' ' ii"ii/h III I'll, \,\ I i/iii , I'l || liHlirlllili |i I STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 219 Their lives were so closely interwoven in the consider- ation, treatment, and results of the momentous events and issues of the time, that the facts concerning their lives, their discussions, contentions, agreements, and final unity of purpose and action, must all be told if we are rightly to understand them and gain a truthful knowledge of the period and its exciting history, so full of interest to every American citizen of our native land, whose rights and privi- leges have grown so priceless under the lead of the giant- minded Douglas and the greater Lincoln. Douglas was a man of broad capacities, having a well- trained mind, with energy and determination or will that would have succeeded with half his mental equipment. He was short of limb and stature, still strong and resolute in look and build, with a large body and overgrown head that left no doubt of his masterful capacities, perseverance, and resources. He came of a long ancestr}'-, rightly distinguished for courageous service in the cause that preserved Scotland's liberty and carried the united standard of the Lion and Unicorn over the seas and continents of all the earth, and service to mankind in every other field of human knowledge or endeavor. He was descendant of one of the great families, whose clans filled the mountains with men who fought and won and fell on every field that saved and held their coun- try's liberty, ''The land that loved the heart of Bruce." His father was a scholarly man, a physician, a student de- voted to his humane and unselfish work. The family lived at Brandon, Vermont, April 23, 1813, when Stephen was born. Brandon had aspirations: it had an academy, where young people could gain knowledge and information, where the elder ones had, along with these, some very stubborn "Yankee notions," one of which was, "that slavery is wrong and unjust." The young Stephen grew and went to the district school and the academy as faithfully as his mother could keep him going. He attended the latter, in all, as 220 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. much as one year, but with little thought or realization on the part of mother, teachers, or himself what a wonderful career he was entering and preparing for in Brandon's un- pretentious academy. There was little thought, then, that he would sit eighteen years in the jSTation's Congress, as a great leader at his forty-eighth year, nor that he would sit in three terms in his country's highest deliberative council, the Senate, and be a well-respected leader in those bodies, with Calhoun, Crawford, Clay, Benton, Davis, and Critten- den, of the slave States, and Cass, Webster, Ewing, Seward, Sumner, and Chase of the free States. His father died when he was a child only two months old. His mother removed to a small farm in the vicinity, where he grew to be fifteen years old in the New England farmer's way of living, working, going to school, and persevering, which amounted to close application, moral straightness, hard work, the economy that forced the use of every arable inch of soil in a range of marble and granite, which was then waiting the development of the tombstone and summer vacation business and industries. Im.pressed with the maxim that ''industry is the surest foundation of success," Stephen, at fifteen years of age, went to a neighboring cabinet-maker to learn the trade; but finding on a short trial that his health and strength were giving way, and that he was not able for the labor, he made the best of his time, and completed as well as he could his schooling in the academy. About 1828, his mother married Mr. Granger, of Canan- daigua. New York, to which town the family removed. Mr. Granger was kind to and much interested in the big-headed boy, who was never without a book. By his advice and help, Stephen entered the academy at that place, where he also found opportunity for the use of a law library in the town. He made use of all these facilities, and in the five years of his residence there, besides the work of helping his kind step- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 221 father, he figured, studied, and read himself into student, scholar, teacher, and lawyer. His mind and strength held him equal to all the appli- cation and study that his unequally-developed system of too much head would bear, which was true also of the brilliant forty-eight years of living, in which it was true that his dauntless and indefatigable spirit and intellect wore out and consumed his overchested, overbrained anatomy, cutting off fifteen to twenty years of the average life of such men. However, he became a power in the land, when in the fast- flying years he achieved the work of a lifetime, and left a record of stubborn patriotism that has never become dimmed. At Canandaigua he studied, worked, and wrote sixteen to eighteen hours a day, with all the books he wished for at his command, resembling Lincoln's steady work and study at New Salem, but with the wider opportunities of a library. There is no exaggeration in acknowledging him a giant, which he really was in intellect, when it is remembered that in his meteoric career from his start with thirty-seven cents in his pocket at Jacksonville in 1833 to Chicago in 1861, in twenty-eight years he had filled the measure of any Amer- ican's ambition, except being President, for which he was barely defeated, by the greatest leader and prophet of his time. In the early spring of 1833 he arrived in Jacksonville, Illinois, tired and wornout with travel, having walked twenty-five miles from Beardstown, on the Illinois River, with "three bits" in his pocket, as he related, but paying small attention to that, for the trip west had strengthened and invigorated him, and his capital was in his head. He was twenty years of age, and as well fixed for work of his capacity and liking as any young man he met, and with determination to succeed. Jacksonville is the county town of the rich county of 222 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Morgan, about the equal in resources of Sangamon, the adjoining county, where Abe Lincoln was struggling along under equallj^ disadvantageous surroundings at New Salem. Jacksonville had perhaps a thousand people, Springfield twice as many. Douglas felt himself equal to any require- ment, and was well fixed in his town. Lincoln, four years older, was still preparing for his advance to Springfield. Douglas hunted up an auctioneer, worked for him two or three days; for he could write and cast up accounts, and his employer could not. He received six dollars, a respectable sum for those days, on which he could live for three weeks. He soon heard of an opening to teach "a subscription school" at Winchester, sixteen miles southwest, the county town of Scott County, a smaller town than Jacksonville. He suc- ceeded in getting a school of forty pupils, which he taught through a term of three months with entire satisfaction and rising popularity in both towns. He kept hard at work with his law studies through the school term, and was readily admitted to the Jacksonville bar at its close. With his small savings he opened a law office in Jacksonville in the fall of 1833, from which time forward he had no lack of clients or business. He soon rose to distinction as one of the clearest-headed, closest reasoners at the bar. His memory seemed equal to the other qualities of his richly-stored mind, where all his laborious readings were ready at his service. His learning and widely- gathered information, his high capacity in drawing conclu- sions and reaching judgment, and his sagacity as a debater, made him a leader at the Jacksonville and Springfield bars when only twenty-one years of age. In the spring of 1835, at twenty-two years of age, he was elected to the Illinois Legislature to fill a vacancy, where he took a seat the youngest member of the body. He was a member of the Vandalia session of which we have written, in which Mr. Lincoln won his first distinction and leadership THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 223 in the capital removal. Douglas gave this measure his un- qualified support, which was reasonable enough, for his adjoining county of Morgan, next to Sangamon, would be as much benefited as any by the removal. Thus at -the threshold of his truly great career, as in the time of party sunderings at its close, he stood in line on the same side with Lincoln. It seems appropriate to the purposes and design of the writer to make this a truthful record of the facts in the life of Mr. Lincoln, and of the men working and contending with him, and the momentous issues of his time, to explain the personal relations, by which much of the information here recorded came to his knowledge. The father of the writer, Nimmo Browne, was a Scotch- man, born in 1804, with training and ancestry back for cen- turies in some of the oldest families of Carrickshire in the heart of the Lowlands. The families had military name and record of service. As many as five of them served with Wellington in his French and Spanish campaigns, and three of them fell at Waterloo, Nimmo was born and educated at Glasgow, where he passed his course of study, taking after- wards special courses in engineering and art at the Univer- sity of Edinburgh. He was a young man in 1828 of learning and promise, and would have taken up the work of his pro- fession, civil engineering, in his rapidly-growing home, Glasgow, but for the unrighteous tradition, a burden and requirement resting on the families, that at least one eligible son of each one of them must, as proof of loyalty, enter the military or naval service of the crown. That he might be free from restraint, he did what thou- sands of Scotchmen have done — he emigrated. He sailed from Glasgow, and after a tempestuous voyage of six weeks by the way of Hatteras and other stormy southern capes, he arrived in ^ew York City about December, 1829, where he found occupation. He had pursued his work diligently, had 224 ABB AH AM LINCOLN. earned success that satisfied him, and was doing well when "the bankers' money panic of 1837'' disrupted the business, and bankrupted over ninety per cent of the men in trade and commerce of the city, and eventually about as many more all over the new Nation. He weathered that wreckage two 3^ears, and supposed he had survived the destroying, frenzied storm with nothing worse than shrinkages, when, in 1839, one of the trustedj most relied-on banks went down with most of his savings. Wlien it could carry its worthless, defaulted securities no longer, it was discovered to have been in a state of failure from 1837. In this situation, with an acceptable offer of engineering work to a young though inexperienced man, he turned his course westward with his family of wife and two children, the Avriter then being a bo}^ of five, crossed Pennsylvania and the Alleghany range by stage and railroad to Pittsburg in about a week, thence down the Ohio and up the Mississippi Elvers, in two weeks more to St. Louis, Mo., where the family arrived in 1840. He soon found active employment in the public buildings then in progress in the growing western city, where, although the work of that time was plain, it was substantial; and his work on the old United States court-house, the post-office, and custom-house build- ings remains as firm and solid as when it was done more than half a century since. In 1841 he received a request to go to Springfield, Illi- nois, where the old capitol building was being finished, partly redesigned, and its top work and facades were in course of construction. The planning, hoisting, and derrick work, which was hazardous, required experience and knowl- edge like his, where there were not many who had it in the West of that day. This, which he carried on with his St. Louis work, took our family to Springfield to live as much as half the time in the years from 1842 to 1845-46. He was there part of the time of 1841, before the family, alone. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 225 Mr. Douglas was Secretary of State for the State of Illinois when we arrived in St. Louis; when by fortune, or favor of some kind, through the mutual acquaintance of some Scotch people who were instrumental in bringing us west, the family were kindly introduced to Mr. Douglas. He was then, like all the Illinois State officers, quite anxious for the completion of the capitol building. He was fre- quently in St. Louis, where in 1841 he first met Nimmo Browne. They affiliated at once, and became friends and "cronies." It was through his attention and desire that my father undertook the work on the building, and our family went to Springfield to live during the work. Mr. Douglas was a man of affairs in every way, kind, obliging, capable, and, as it happened through his manage- ment that we were for a period citizens of Springfield with him, he seemed to be always doing something for our com- fort and contentment. He was anxious that we should like Illinois, Springfield if we would, and so sincere in his service to us that he blended the conduct of a gentleman with the zeal of a friend. Nimmo Browne was without doubt an acquisition to a capable, rising man like Douglas. The latter was of Scotch ancestry, of a clan as old and honored as it was brave and true. Browne was late from Paisley, Mid Lothian, Glasgow, and Edinburgh and their universities, and the busiest hive of their busiest industries, his home, the renowned manu- facturing, ship-building city of Glasgow, on "the dear old Clyde." He was an active, energetic man of business, trained and experienced in the school of "the great American panic." He was a man of skill, an engineer, and an artist of no mean pretension, for he had sculptured "Judas," that darkly-lined the Glasgow chapel. He was an educated man and scholar, if Glasgow and Edinburgh could make one. He became not only a builder of cupolas, columns, and fagades, but a valuable friend and helper to the untiring 15 226 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. student that earned the name of "giant" in a field of statesmen. This personal statement, besides being a willing tribute to a worthy father, is to light up the way to how and what we know of Douglas, and through him at first how we came to know Abraham Lincoln. Further, for the reason that so much has been said of the schooling and learning, or the lack of it, of these compatriot leaders, an accredited man of learning, the near friend of one of them and the respected acquaintance of the other, has been introduced. There is no intention to use or distort the intimate knowledge gained of these men to the support or introduction of pre- conceived opinions or beliefs concerning them; but with knowledge derived from themselves and from concurrent events, we shall proceed on our way with lighted torch, gathering facts and telling the story of these two great Americans, who were not altogether another Jonathan and David, but very much more so than most men of this day believe. Browne was nothing of a partisan, and too much ab- sorbed in his work to take any active part in public affairs. However, he had been a close student of political economy and statecraft. He was a Democrat, not because Jackson was, but, although from an old house of generations back, because his comparatively free Scotland, its institutions and his learning, had made him one. He had grown up under his training a believer in Christ's precept, "Therefore all things Avhatsoever ye would that men should do unto yon, do you even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew vii, 12) ; than which the rights of man can have no better foundation. No small part of the consideration that brought him to this country was the freedom of opinion and equal rights guaranteed under our system. He had lived in 'New York full ten years, where, whatever might be said of their far-reaching, money-getting schemes, still the spirit THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 227 of our free institutions prevailed, and men were as little hampered and trammeled for opinion's sake as anywhere in the world. When he arrived in St. Louis he was surprised and sorely disappointed at the intolerance and persecutions of the pro-slavery leaders, who encouraged mobs and mur- derers against those whom they were pleased to denounce as "agitators and Abolitionists." Like Scotchmen everywhere, with few exceptions, he be- lieved that slavery was a crime, and so expressed himself without qualification. Not many weeks after his arrival he denounced slavery as a great wrong at a slave auction on the front steps of the court-house in St. Louis. His candor and sincerity seemed to protect him in doing and saying what few others could; but he soon discovered that such methods availed nothing, and invited murder or mobbing by any one who continued it. He gave up that plan of arraigning it, chagrined, but as firmly resolved to strike the heaviest blows against it, whenever opportunity came, that his power and learning gave him strength to deliver. He was further surprised on reaching Springfield to learn that freedom of speech on the slavery question was as much restricted in many parts of the free State of Illinois as in Missouri, and as dangerous to life and property, as was shown in the Love joy murder. Mr. Douglas, after the arrival in Springfield, was a friendly visitor in our home. As the work on the State- house went on he eagerly watched the tall derricks with their head-poles rigged all over with heavy chains, monster blocks and hooks that one man could barely lift, with coil after coil of great ropes swinging the mighty stones, some of them six feet in diameter, into place on the rising col- umns, and saw other heavy stone and metals carried up to the cupola, frieze, and upper cornices of the roof and facades. As the work went on he became deeply interested, and saw the building progress from day to day under the 228 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Scotchman's plans and designs. A hundred big-chested, brawny-limbed men were fashioning the raw material and raising the pile of stone, metal, and glass with all their ener- gies, without the machinery and appliances then in common use further east. Douglas and Lincoln, like many others, were anxious for its completion, a full thousand or more of whom watched its progress from day to day with increasing interest, the good people of the newly-made capital city looking at its progress with honest pride as it rose in strength, if not in architec- tural beauty; for how could that be, coming out of a design that was sent "out west ready made?" To Douglas it had more than ordinary interest; for his Scotch friend was hoisting those outer works of the much- needed building, and he watched with him as it rose. The removal to Springfield was a success, and the rising structure gave hardly less satisfaction to him than it did to Lincoln, both of whom gave the enterprise all their help and strength from the beginning. In the building Browne came to know and be the friend of Douglas, and through him made the acquaintance of the plain, honest man, whom Douglas as- sured Browne after their first meeting, "that he was the strongest man in his party, with striking possibilities for him in the future, should his party ever come into power." Browne came to know both men well, and with them a thousand worthy men and leaders of the great and rising State, and gained a knowledge of its men and affairs that has strengthened the writer in the present desire to tell something of the story and the facts in their lives as they came under his observation and knowledge. From the time Douglas was elected to the Legislature in 1835, at twenty- two years of age, he was continually in office to the close of his life. He was in no sense a seeker for place or position. He was elected and re-elected, because he was considered the best fitted and most eligible man in his party, and, like THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 229 Lincoln in this, when he was selected it was because he was judged to be the best one for it, without his solicitation or request of any kind, and b}^ the unanimous approval of his party. lie was a strict believer in the rigid party discipline of the time, which was strengthened and enforced more inflexibly than ever by reason of the Jackson ascendency and control of the Democratic party. Jackson was a man of long military training and experience, which developed his strong and decided opinions, with nothing of the com- promiser or concessionist, like Clay, in his nature. No dif- ference what liberty there might have been in the discussion or settlement of any party question in his regime, there was none afterwards, and the Democrats of that day met, agreed, decided, obeyed, and followed Jackson, just as his volunteers did, "through thick and thin." His military service and success more fully confirmed him in his austere if not autocratic methods of government, and in the party discipline, through which he ruled his party and the Nation without division or question of his power and authority. Thus he made the Democratic party the best disciplined, strongest association of voters, acting under a single will, that could be organized in the country, from which it grew to be a strong party with little or noth- ing left of democracy in it besides the name. Control of this splendid, well-organized party was an achievement of incalculable benefit to the slave propagand- ists, who embraced the opportunity and exercised it to the extent of their powers. They suppressed and destroyed the anti-slavery press wherever it was possible, restricted free- dom of expression and speech against slavery in every free State with all the power at their command, and directed free State Legislatures, as we have related, to denounce "agita- tion of the slavery question" as a crime against the system and property rights of the Southern States. In another 230 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. relation they held slavery to be a "domestic institution/' over which neither the people, nor the Nation, nor the free States had either power or control in any degree, virtually declaring and making slavery an institution, which "under the Constitution' could not be restricted or interfered with, and never the subject of law except to protect or extend it. This was the condition of the free Eepublic, under the rule of the Democratic party, in 1835, when Douglas was rising to political leadership. He had been brought up and trained to freedom and independence of men, free speech, and a free press, in line and thought with Scotchmen the world over; but in his rising, ambition had even then seized and owned his aching soul. He realized that although he was "a. Douglas," alone against the field on the slavery question he would be as nothing, "a foolish, frivolous play;" hence he submitted, as he could do no better in his party, with the hope that he and the men of his belief could some day rise to power. All of this, though distant, he saw and helped to accomplish in the end, when planning senators and plotting cabals felt the strength and patriotic fury of his well-directed, killing blows against their sin and system; but it came in the ruin rather than the triumph of his party. The Whig party was non-committal or neutral at the time on the slavery question, but so organized and led from its inception that its compromising leaders were ever ready to help it compass the protection and extension of slavery as its projectors and supporters desired. It was then that there seemed no avenue to political distinction or leader- ship with acquiescence in the system that threatened and terrorized the land, to which Douglas yielded, when Lincoln resisted, and opposed the passage of the "anti-agitation of slavery resolutions" in the Illinois Legislature. Thus knowing the men and the parties and their polit- ical relations, we start out with the two great political THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 231 leaders of their time, one of them calm, collected, and thoughtful, a moral hero, the other an impatient, industri- ous, and untiring student, an aggressive, ambitious man, who saw no other road open to leadership, and yielded that he might conquer. In this he was the politic man of his time; for of all who were and who wanted to he leaders in the free State of Illinois, there was but Dan Stone who would stand up with Lincoln and denounce slavery as a "system of injustice and wrong." The rise and career of Douglas in his State and in the Nation, later, was amazing and phenomenal, even where he had no contestant in his party. After his service in the Legislature in 1835-36, he was, in 1837, appointed United States Eegister of the Land Office at Springfield. In the same year he was his party's candidate for Congress from the whole State, the largest district in the United States, as the State then was only one district. After making a strong canvass and establishing himself as one of the ablest orators and clearest-headed debaters in public life, he was defeated by five in a vote of seventy-five thousand. As related before, he was elected Secretary of State in 1840. He also took an active part in the canvass of the State that year, speaking, lining up the party, making friends by thousands all over the State, from which time forward he became the acknowledged leader of the controlling party in Illinois. When the election was over, General Harrison was elected President. Douglas was not expecting to be longer in public life, when he set himself hard at work in preparation for his law business, which would have remun- erated him several times above the salary of any office he held, for he had won distinction as a pleader, and had an office full of present and prospective work awaiting him. Unexpectedly to him, however, in February, 1841, the Legislature elected him one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State, when he was scarcely twenty-eight years 232 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of age. It was during this year that Ximmo Browne made his acquaintance, who said in referring to it: "Douglas was a prodigy, applying himself almost inces- santly to his work and study; so much so that we expected to see him break down under the load. He had cases in two or three courts that required close attention almost every day to close them up. The Supreme Court was much behind with a pressing load of business that was enough for any member of the court; besides all these, he was in a course of law-reading, economics, and polemics several hours a day or night. He almost lived in a little box, the library- room of the Supreme Court, with several hundred volumes shelved on its walls, and a long table usually covered with books and papers in the center. His court work took up the day, sometimes part of the evening; after which came his reading and study, which continued until he was worn out and fell asleep, sometimes as late as three or four o'clock in the morning. "WTien the nights were seasonable, he put a book under his head and took his few hours' sleep before sunrise, all he got, when he would get up and study an hour before breakfast. He kept his study and labor up in this way for several months in 1841-42, when I was with him much of the time and spent almost every evening with him. "He became so deeply interested in the readings that he could fairly read and translate Herodotus and Livy before the year was over, without help. He was a marvelous little man, with a chest as full as my own, forty-two inches, and the head of a giant. I was amazed and astonished at the man. I had seen hundreds tied down as hard as boys and men could be to their studies, many of them slow enough to have to keep at it every working hour, but here was a man, bright, keen, and perspicacious, who did voluntarily twice as much as any one of them I had ever known. "Verily he is a remarkable man, and I expect him to gain the highest position that persevering labor and pro- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 233 found study will qualify him for. He is certainly a talented man, ahead of what I estimated, when I knew him so well. All I fear of hun now (1847) is his time-serving devotion to party and his sanguine hope, without prospect of fulfill- ment in my opinion, that he will bring the Democratic party to a policy that will permit free speech and action on the slavery question in every State, North or South." In 1843, Douglas was nominated and elected to Congress, to fill a vacancy. This was full in the time of the Texan- Mexican struggle, when our country was stirred up and deeply agitated and interested in the contest. There was little, if any, objection to the acquisition of Texas aside from the extension of slavery; but this was the main reason for the annexation and conquest of Mexican territory which followed. It was planned for from the beginning by the slave-promoting agencies, to open new fields for cotton, rice, and sugar, a market for the Border State Negroes in which to sell them, and a balancing power against the wide region, west and northwestward, that would soon become free States in the Union. To counteract this, Texas was to be taken, right or wrong, with or without cause against Mexico, an- nexed and admitted as a whole, and to be chopped up into five States as they needed them. Douglas began his political and public life as one of the most ardent, zealous, and courageous defenders of General Jackson, "following him \nth the faith and devotion of a Turk in the service of the prophet," which Browne in their chats often told him, and his "party with as much zeal and devotion as a new convert." The people of that day were troubled, as we are to-day, with the unaccountable desire of reaching out, grasping and taking all the territory within reach that we can get, without no better reason than a child's desire for a new toy. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was nominated by the Democratic party in 1844, in accord with his own belief and 234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the party's declaration in favor of the annexation of Texas, Heni-y Clay for the third time was the Whig candidate for President against Polk. The election of Polk was expected to result in war with Mexico. Clay's election would have been an uncertainty as to the annexation. Many of his supporters were opposed to the slave-extension policy, many were opposed to war, regardless of slavery. Clay was op- posed to war, and the South suspected him, though he was a servant and compromiser in the interests of slavery, as he had always been. The Free State people justly feared him, and believed that he would yield to the policy of annexation and a consequent slavery extension, as he had always yielded to the behests of the propaganda in their emergencies. Thus discredited and doubted in both sections, he was defeated when he fully expected that his party would be successful, as it had been in 1840 in the election of Harrison. All the more did he hope for success because of the apostasy of President Tyler, who, on Harrison's death, one month after his inauguration, became President, and at once became a supple servant of the slave-power and the Democratic party. Clay, besides believing much in his own strength, hoped for much from the punishment and disapproval with which the people would smite the apostate turncoat and faithless Whig Administration; but, as ususal, the man whom the people doubted was beaten. Polk was elected, and Clay, after forty years of conspicuous public life, was a sorely-disap- pointed, politically-hopeless old man. Douglas was re-elected to Congress in 1844, along with Polk, annexation, and the complete ascendency of modern Democracy under the certain supremacy of the slave-power. Although Lincoln and Douglas were distinct and forceful men, each in his way, yet as rising men, party organizers, and leaders, there were many parallels in their lives and history. Lincoln had the independence and heroism to be one of the few men who could organize and create a party THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 235 or following in his chosen cause of reform. Douglas rose as rapidly to be a party leader, without an equal, of that faction of his party that would remain loyal and did so, without a rival. The party as a whole had able leaders, such as Gen- eral Cass, Benton, Jere Black, Governor Ewing, and many others, wise, able statesmen, all capable in their time, but no one of them in a lifetime service rose to the control and power that Douglas did in a few j^ears, at the beginning of his public life, when he came to be leader without dispute, with as much of absolutism in his control as Jackon held, except the pro-slavery faction. Lincoln and Douglas were about the same age. Both were of and from the people, who pursued some active in- dustry and earned their living. Both of them were students who obtained their education in an irregular but persever- ing manner, getting the greater part independently of schools, scholastic forms, or disciplinary methods, yet gain- ing wider knowledge and more certain information than many pretentious scholars, who enviously called them "back- woods lawyers." They rose to leadership in the same pro- fession, in the same courts, towns, and State. They were friendly associates sometimes on the same side of a law- suit, but more frequently opposing each other. They were the rising, noted young men of bars and courts, as able and learned as any in the land. A personal contest with each other in law or politics was never disagreeable; they were men above such petty living and judgment, who always came out of their personal contests with more respect for and better opinion of each other. They were alike in never seeking leadership or position, and always getting it in un- disputed unanimity. They were able, clear-headed men, who never undervalued the abilities and qualifications of each other. Lincoln's rise, progress, and career were far beyond the ordinary course of events in the admissible adaptation and 236 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. power of the man. No other appeared who could have risen up to lead when and where he did. No other could have been independent as he was, and retain the confidence of a party or following. It was given him alone to do that. Many were courageous and outspoken, but he alone of all of them could lead a party in his independent way. Others, able and determined and wise — men like Gerrit Smith, Garri- son, Phillips, Seward, and Weed — could only lead a faction. His work and the man himself were dovetailed, harmoni- ously fitted for it in every movement and detail of the period. In work and progress he was the man above and superior to human contrivings, beyond ordinary conceptions and knowledge. It was providential, and he was the only man of that time who could have made and led the party which he did. In the same sense Douglas Avas the only leader who could rise, or did rise at least, to lead the great body of Amer- icans in the Democratic party in the free States, without dividing authority under dictation from any person or propa- ganda. He led the Democratic party as no other man but Jackson ever had done, who led it in the friendly service of slavery and its extension. Douglas succeeded and led it as absolutely to a position of expressed neutrality on the slavery question, apparently yielding, as will appear, but always to a point short of disloyalty, where he would go no farther nor suffer another to go. He Avould yield to the point where the slave oligarchy gained nothing, but distrusted, doubted, and finally realized that neither Douglas nor the great Democratic party would submit to pro-slavery supremacy, nor follow it into insurrection, nor permit it to extend slavery into any Territory without the consent of the people living in it. The heroic, undisputed leader of his party, which no other man could have led so well, was at last brought in the fullness of the contest to the loyal support of the Union against all its enemies. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 237 Lincoln could not in the critical juncture have led the Democratic party. No man but a Democrat could have led it to such results in such a hotly-contested partisan period; and no Democrat could have led it as well as Douglas, who led the time-honored party of human rights away from seces- sion, with Logan, Mc demand, the Blairs, E wings, Stan- tons, Dix, Holt, Jere Black, and others by the thousands, to the support of the Union and Mr. Lincoln's Administration. Douglas entered Congress in the culminating period of the Texas accession and the war with Mexico. He became a leader and a conspicuous representative at once. He was made chairman of the Committee on Territories in the House in 1844. He introduced a resolution recognizing the independence of Texas, expressing sympathy with our people in their struggle against Mexico, and favoring annexation. There was opposition, but the resolution was carried by a large majorit}^, which was tantamount to a declaration of war. Li doing this he accepted existing conditions, drifted along without contention with the pro-slavery people, and by unanimous approval became firmly established as leader of the party in the free and some of the slave States, notably Missouri, as much as he had been in Illinois. There was a strong sentiment on the part of many of our people in all parties of that time in favor of annexation, as a line of policy on this continent that should prevail. Doug- las held strongly to that belief, as Mr. Webster did, who was Secretary of State in the Harrison Administration when it came into power in 1841. He continued in the Tyler suc- cession, which was well, as it gave him opportunity to com- plete the treaty with Britain on our northeastern boundary, and to retain all that was possible of the Oregon Territory, This was fortunate, for if the slaveholders' policy had pre- vailed in its entirety, Britain would probably have held not only a part, but all of the territory that is now the States of Oregon and Washington, There was no man in public 238 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. life at the time who was more capable, indefatigable, and determined, nor to whom more credit is due for holding that territoT}' from the grasp of Britain, than Douglas. He believed in what he called the destiny of the United States, its eventually holding undivided control of the Xorth Amer- ican Continent, including Central America, the Antilles, and the Isthmus of Panama, all except Mexico. This he firmly believed in and persistently worked up to in his policy wher- ever it was possible to advance it. Our progress in that direction since the settlement of our internal dissensions is confirmatory proof, were it necessary, of the wisdom and sagacity of his statesmanship. In the work of completing the capitol, Browne remained at Springfield most of the time up to 1846. Douglas was a frequent visitor and an interested spectator as the work progressed; besides, they often spent their evenings to- gether in the Judge's office when it was convenient and both were in town. Browne was often away in St. Louis, where he was carrying on other work. After Douglas en- tered Congress he was away half of the time, perhaps more. This temporary absence strengthened their friendship and freshened their desire for a talk or a discussion, some of which were as strong and earnest as they could make them. CHAPTER XI. AFTER war had been declared against Mexico, and the southern proslavery policy had been fully disclosed and Douglas had given the slavery extension plan his sup- port, in an animated discussion, Browne said: "Believing you to be an anti-slavery man at heart, true to the principles of a free country, free speech, a free press, and an honest re- ward for labor, it surprises me that you should in any con- tingency support this slavery-spreading and slavery-power exalting measure. The traditions and teachings of our ancestry are against it, the light of civilization is against it, and Great Britain, monarchical Britain, has set the world an example, and has under leadership of Wilberforce, with his humanity-believing followers, abolished slavery in all its colonies, and has declared that the slave-trade is piracy, a crime which is to be swept from the seas." To this Douglas replied: "First, did you not know that what we have of this system of wrong came from your and my ancestral Britain — a legacy, a result of their thrifty, world-wide plundering, which is no longer profitable to them in distant colonial management? They have righted up on moral grounds, and are calling the world sinners who are not now under their example. "We must concede that the system, wrong as it is, has grown into our industrial and commercial life so far and in so many ways that it will take a long period of time for its gradual amelioration and removal; and the wise, patri- otic help of every peacefully-inclined citizen to accomplish this, or to prevent a conflict, which, should it come, meas- 239 240 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ured by the strength and determination of our people, will be the most frightful and destructive for centuries. It will leave both sections impoverished and, perchance, so helpless as to fall an easy prey to moral-minded Britain and her conscientious allies on the Continent of Europe. They have never found a people too poor or uncivilized to rob and oppress, like the Hindoos, who, earning ten cents a da}'', or less, must still pay tribute out of that; or the naked, wild African, who must trade his tusks of ivory, his sandal-wood and spices, at the point of a gun, for the manufacturer's bauble of an idol in bronze." Browne replied: "I concede the force of much of what you say and the truth of the grasping policy of Britain and other monarchical nations ; but your premises are wrong. Men come out of barabarism only by degrees. These nations justify their ^revenue-raising systems' in this, that it is better for these people, barbarous and half-civilized, to pay onerous tribute, and trade their ivory and other valu- ables for trifles rather than continue their bloody strife of killing and sometimes eating one another. These na- tions claim that if the native does trade his ivory tusk, which, in his savage life, is only a bludgeon or something of as little good to him, for a tin or pewter god, he has seen a civilized man, or one that should be, with a shirt and coat, and made an advance perhaps more than his race had made in a thousand years. This would be an achievement, and perhaps he would follow the example; and if he could come to wearing a shirt, the next generation might be ex- pected to make further progress: wear more clothes and learn much that is good along with so much that is bad, as we all know. "Bibles go with these bad policies, and are translated into their own tongue — the Book that has spread more enlightenment and better ideas of living and more freedom than all other books, plans, and processes since the world TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 241 began. I think the trade-expandmg nations have done much good, along with much that should not have been, and is disgraceful. Be assured, also, that no one will unite with you in more emphatic denunciation of these evil policies and processes than the great body of liberty-loving human- ity, as well as trade-expanding Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen, who have been the chief workers and laborers in making this Eepublic habitable for man and what it promises to be. "But to the main question: Slavery is a wrong and an injustice so flagrant, palpable, and bad in every way as to be an evil beyond compensation to any nation that has trade, commerce, civilizing, or sensible methods in prog- ress. In short, it is such an evil, such a widespreading and debasing one, so inimical and injurious to free thought, free speech, and a just reward for labor, so unprofitable to the people who live immediately under its blight and those indirectly shorn of part of their wages, as our men a.re here in this work, so universally known to be wrong, that any people sufficiently informed to be able to read current events should set about it at once to adopt some plan, not of tem- porizing with it in any way, but to abolish it at once and forever; for, except the few thousands who are living on the products of the black man's labor, all the other millions would be immediately and directly benefited. "The process against it should be as much stronger and more powerful than the millions who suffer from its effects are greater than the thousands who live by this oppression. This should be done at once before all the Southern people are deluded into support of a system that is rapidly turning the Republic into an aristocracy. There should be men in this free, spreading land to take up the cause of man against avarice, wrong, and usurpation, as Wilberforce, Canning, and Chalmers did. If this were done, there will be thousands to follow the cause of right as there have al- 16 242 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. ways been when the time and the issues are ready; and they surely are so in this slavery-cursed Nation to-day. "If, in doing right, conflict should come, let the responsi- bility for it rest where it should — on the shoulders of those who are perpetuating a wrong like that for which God has virtually extinguished many of the most learned, skilled, and powerful nations of antiquity, leaving little of their once dominant power, . save obelisks, carved monoliths, tombs, sphinxes, pyramids, and charming ruins." Douglas was much interested, but not in any way dis- pleased with this earnest discussion, of which we are only giving the substance. He replied: "Your policy and ideas may be right on moral grounds, but is no more now than an abstraction, utterly impossible of execution in our pres- ent situation, unless it come in war. For this none are pre- pared; certainly not the anti-slavery people, who, in organi- zation, are not as compact and fully held to one idea and purpose as the slaveholders have been ever since the acces- sion of Calhoun to leadership of their faction, as early as 1832. "There is, to my mind, only one practical solution of the slavery question left for us if we are to remain one people: that is, to treat and deal with slavery as a domestic insti- tution, as the founders of the Nation and the framers of the Constitution left it, under the entire control of the States where it exists, with Congressional restriction to Southern latitudes should it become aggressive. If it is so dealt with, the West and the great Northwest, with their stronger, more robust, more determined, and vastly greater population will soon outrun in every way the slavery insti- tution that must, in the nature of things, be limited to a few Southern States. Many of these would soon provide a system of gradual emancipation if agitation upon this subject could be discontinued and the people's mind set to rest upon some fairly agreeable settlement entered into THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 243 by both sections in friendly consideration of the great is- sues involved. "It would be nothing less than folly for me to acquiesce in your ideas. The great Democratic party of the Nation would discard me, or any other man, or any and all its leaders, who would attempt to lead it in that direction. It is a great body of men, including many kinds of people, with greath'-varying beliefs and ideas of government, but all united on the idea of the greatest freedom to the indi- vidual compatible with public safety under existing condi- tions, but with positive limits and bounds, past which no one can safely pass. He who would rise in its esteem and be trusted by this great body of freemen must first learn to follow and obey. I very much regret your position, but will make no effort to change it. We are friends, and will remain so. As such, I must caution you against frequent expressions of your extremist opinions on the question; and, as you are not in public life, and not expecting to enter it, there will be no sufficient reason that you should engage in the discussion of the subject. You are, by your own definition, an 'Abolitionist,' outside of all existing parties, holding to a belief that, if earnestly expressed in many places in this State, might put 3'^our liberty and even your life in jeopardy." Erowne was something surprised, but pleased by the candor and artless statement of Douglas. He soon re- gained his equanimit}', and replied: "I am not expecting, and do not desire public office or position of any kind what- ever; indeed, I seldom cast a vote. You are doubtless cor- rect in saying that you must pursue your present course if you are to remain and rise in your party, or in any party of the present; for both the Democratic and the Whig par- ties are servants of the slave power, differing only in degree; and I regret, more sincerely than you seem to do, my iso- lation and possible danger, the deplorable condition that 244 ABB AH AM LINCOLN. exists in this pretentious land of freedom, where human rights are languishing under the heel of as relentless an oligarchy as holds power in any kingdom of Europe. "I am grateful for your friendship, and respect your ahilities, which I know are real, sustained, too, in such per- severing assiduity that your position must be a distinguished one, or nothing; but remember the old Scotch legend, that 'avarice and greed are nae choice bodies, and always con- vert or destroy their followers.' Wlien you can serve these slave-believing, slave-spreading gentlemen no longer, you will remember Wolsey. I assure you that, without de- siring to be a partisan of any kind, I shall never ally myself to any political body that will not destroy as great an evil as human slavery wherever it has opportunity, and that I will preserve the life or the reputation of a Scotchman who is not afraid to express his opinion, but who has the sense and propriety not to interfere where nothing can be accomplished." This sketch has been given to illustrate the condition of public feeling in the West in such States as Illinois, In- diana, and Ohio at that time, when an anti-slavery man was as much out of place in any of them as in the border or slave States of Kentucky or Missouri. The body of the people were not in favor of slavery, but they looked upon it as a subject settled in law and by compromises, and dread- ing any reopening of the question that had divided the sec- tions so long. They became intolerant, and served the slave-owners so well that they suppressed free speech and opinion on the subject for two generations or more. The difficulties will be better understood as we proceed. The task ahead of Mr. Lincoln seemed an impossible one when seen from the point of his first revolt against the resolutions in the Illinois Legislature; but in a providential way a party grew up and sustained him. This support and party, however, could not have taken him through the ap- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 245 preaching conflict. It was necessary that the Democratic party, then altogether indifferent to the turpitude and pur- poses of the slave-leaders must, nevertheless, if he was to succeed, come to his support without doubt or uncertainty. Hence a leader like Douglas, who could not be taken be- yond the bounds of loyalty to his countr}^ capable, experi- enced, and fearless, was a providential necessity, with his party intact on the same lines and in the same sense of duty that Lincoln was. We have seen similarity in the rise and progress of these leaders; and now that they came to lead a party forming and a party formed in the same even- tual cause is the most striking and important fact of all and as providential in one as the other. Judge Douglas introduced Mr. Lincoln to Nimmo Bro-RTie soon after Browne's arrival in Springfield. Mr. Lincoln was an interested spectator on the capitol building as it progressed. He was always a welcome visitor. His manner was so easy and affable, his genuine friendly ad- dress and his unfailing humor, that were all satisfying, like the garments he wore, which hung loosely and easily on him, were always with him, were all so plain and entertain- ing, that Browne declared: *'He was the most agreeable, wittiest, and most entertain- ing talker I ever met. His bones, angular joints, promi- nent facial features, his loose integuments about his face and neck, although young, his careless, irregular walk and action, his long arms and sometimes awkward motions, were all forgotten as he engaged you in conversation and illus- tration. Every feature on his worn-looking face brightened, the most penetrating eye that I ever saw fired up, as I felt, with the light and strength of a deeply earnest soul. He would interest us all a few minutes, pass up or down the street in the same thoughtful, careless-looking way, almost every day. ''^'^ery soon after I met him, I asked Judge Douglas, 246 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. *What of your friend, Lincoln, tlie thoughtful, pensive, old- looking young man whom you introduced?' Douglas re- plied: 'He is the ablest man in his party in the State, and a leader among men in anything he undertakes. He has an ease and familiarity of manner that wins the respect and generally the confidence of every one he meets. As a pleader before a jury he seems in congenial relation at once; and before any jury that I have ever seen him ad- dress there was little use for any lawyer to oppose him, except in matters of fact, and in these he always conceded the truth in the cases which he tried; but as an advocate he has no equal before a jury, and if he has ever met one, I have never heard of it. He managed the capital removal to this city. In an easy, ingratiating way he served so many members in such useful and timely help about something of their own under way on which their standing at home depended, in which Lincoln helped them out so well that he carried the measure through, with help, of course, but only as he directed it. It did not seem possible that any other man in or out of the Legislature could have done it. He is a conscientious, studious, thoughtful man, always well prepared for any work he undertakes. He has qualified him- self and holds his leading position, like most of us, mainly thr'ough his own application, perseverance, and exertion. You will be pleased with his acquaintance and delighted with his anecdotes, and would be more so if you were not a Scotchman. We have often contended in the courts and on the stump, but have never allowed such differing inter- ests to interrupt the course of our friendship, which has always been as sincere between us as you have seen it.' " The acquaintance made with both of these able gentlemen continued, with no incident to disturb its even current, until Browne had completed his work on the State-house, about 1846, and was about returning to St. Louis. Lincoln met Browne, and the two sat down on the stone steps for a few THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 247 minutes' talk. Lincoln said, in substance: "I regret to learn that you are about leaving us. We have been pleased with your stay among us, and your work has been well done. Judge Douglas, whose abilities we all respect regardless of party, being so intimate a friend that, opposed as we are in political matters, I have felt a delicacy in making more than a friendly acquaintance heretofore; but now that you are leaving, I feel that may be I have not been as cordial as I should have been. If so, there has been no intention. I would have enjoyed a closer acquaintance. I have only lately realized that you are about leaving us, and the inter- est is much increased as I learn you are strongly against slavery, on which point we can fully agree." Browne replied, giving, in substance, his discussion and disagreement with Douglas and his rejoinders as related above, ending with, "I shall not vote with or belong to any party that consents or submits to further strengthen- ing or extending slavery; and I will do all in my power to aid the party that takes up the cause of freedom against it willingly, and with neither hope nor desire for office or emolument in the work.'* They had a friendly parting. Lincoln checked Browne's ardor against slavery at the time, saying: "You must be patient. In the very nature of our institutions, changes come very slowly, and the contest over slavery will be long and tedious. The time will come when a man of your learn- ing and experience can be of much service. You can not do much now, and prudence requires you to bear and be silent, that you may not rashly get into trouble that will affect nothing. I sincerely regret your leaving, and, God helping you, I shall always be anxious to hear of your welfare." Douglas and Lincoln were the adversaries, the leaders of two strongly-organized parties and as strongly contend- ing for office and control. There were many times, in the 248 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, rough-and-tumble contests of the campaigns, that in some places the contentions grew so warm that the disputers and their followers often came to blows, sometimes result- ing in personal enmities that lasted a lifetime; but these two strong men of sense, leading partisans, whose intem- perate zeal got them into many difficulties, always held respectful and friendly relations, at least we who saw most of their personal relations always believed that their respect and friendship for each other was sincere. Political essayists, Avith more zeal than information, and prejudiced partisan biographers, who have written preconceived ideals, have distorted the facts in the lives of these men to alarming proportions, and have built up a line of hostilities between them, formed on rumor, which, fortunately, is more formidable in their contributions and histories than in all the world besides. These should all be forgotten. The smooth-running current of respect and personal regard that always existed should be told, espe- cially when it is known, as we knew it to be true, that the disputes and differences between them were no more serious or distracting — often less so — than those between any other two leading members of the Springfield bar. Mr. Lincoln was elected and re-elected to the Illinois Legislature, commencing in 1834, for four successive terms of two years, up to 1842. During the period, the capital removal was made, which was not completed until 1839. He gave the work much of his time and attention, attending to and looking after many of the details in person. It was during this period that he was establishing himself in his profession in the new capital. He began his work as the law partner of his teacher and comrade. Major Stuart, who was with him in the Legislature and in other political em- ployment for so much of the time that their law business languished and brought small revenue by reason of their quasi-public occupation. The ways in which holding office THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 249 and being a candidate for it hinder and embarass a young lawyer in the beginning of his career in obtaining business or reasonable pay for it are endless. The business of be- ing a representative, under the circumstances in which Lin- coln held the office for Sangamon County, was almost a profitless one. Such a place, in those days, kept him in some kind of party or public service constantly. It was the same, ordinarily, of representatives of the larger counties of a growing State and thrifty, growing communities, towns, and cities all over it. In a greater degree than any other of that day was it true of the representative compassing and completing the work of the capital removal. To be on friendly and agreeable terms with the people there were many things to do for them that took time, for which there was no thought of remuneration. There were meetings, caucuses, Conventions for party and local pro- moting enterprises, all of which he would have to attend, understand the particular objects for which they were as- sembled, keep in touch with the work, and aid in its prog- ress in every way that might become necessary. Many a friend who had been helpful in the canvass or after election would often need something done in the courts or the various public offices. Committees had to be made, and their work assigned them. Addresses were necessary in this place and that. These, and many other things, were in the line of his ordinary work, and had to be looked after carefully, receive prompt and proper attention, if he was to keep his place as a man of the people, ready and willing for what- ever might come, in and out of season. Thousands of young men all over our country have passed through a training and pupilage of this kind; but there are few who did as much as he did, or who continued it for as much as eight years. He was, for part of this period, the law partner of Major Stuart, and shared the profits of the business; but Stuart was another reed shaking 250 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. in the wind, being in political life as much as Lincoln. In this way Mr. Lincoln gave this long period of service to his friends and the public, with meager compensation for any of it, and without any for the greater part of it. It was well, however, and much to his advantage, that he passed through a long period of such work and experience. It kept him with and among the people for the whole time. By reason of it he came to know every man in the State personally who had an acquaintance outside of his county. In the time he had made an intimate acquaintance with all the representatives, senators. State officers, and hundreds of other prominent men from all parts of the State, whose local affairs brought them to the capital. Besides this, the exciting political campaigns took him all over the State, and some places in other "Western States, beginning in 1840, as an elector on the Whig ticket that year. The canvass of 1840 gave him an acquaintance with more than two thousand of the public and business men of Illinois, whom he afterwards knew personally, and most of whom he could address by name. He made it a habit to remember his friends and acquaintances, where they lived, and be ready with something at hand that would interest or amuse them whenever they met. He had a local acquaint- ance in the central part of the State, rising as his business increased from two or three counties in 1836 to about ten in 1860, in which he knew almost every person in them, with a remembrance so accurate and distinct that he knew most of them by name, their occupation, and where they lived. In the open-hearted, cordial way that was as natural to him as the easy fit and adaptation of his eight-year-old silk hat, he met these people year in and year out in such sin- cere greeting and friendship that every one of them was afterwards his friend, and felt that they had an interest worth talking about in that great, big-hearted man. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 251 With this side of his character well understood, as it v\-as and should be now, that he held the people's conjfidence in almost a State full, spreading far and wide as he became better known, can there be any sort of doubt that he was the strongest man in the aifection of the common people that ever lived on this Continent, or that, when he came to counsel with or address them, they believed in him, and that their confidence could not be shaken? He is to be a strong man in our progress, all the way, but nowhere more than the representative of the plain, common people, who be- lieved in and followed him stronger and more ardently the more they saw and heard him. Thus situated, it was a tedious undertaking for a young man to rise to distinction and the enjoyment of a com- fortable living, which he reached in 1843, at thirty- three years of age. All the more was it difficult as we remember the burdens voluntarily imposed upon himself. In addi- tion to this, "the bank-failing money panic" that bank- rupted most of the people, and generally obliterated values in 1837, had, in 1838, rolled over the West with more sweeping reduction of values than in the Eastern States, if such were possible. In the latter year it ran like wild- fire, all the more destructive to property because there was so little in the newly-settled States those days to satisfy the devouring maw of the money-grinder. Everything went down in money-panic fashion, in a sort of common ruin, where a pound of money had no counter- poise in property or labor or its products. When gold and silver, which were all the money that held value, became scarce and appreciated, they were hoarded, and the busi- ness and industries and all there was of civilization of the great West were carried on for several years by the primi- tive system of barter and credits. Concerning this condition of affairs in finance and trade, Mr. Lincoln was wont to philosophize: "If some tyro in 252 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. money proposes a new system of values, basing his creed on four simple articles, I believe we will do well to adopt it, at least until disaster comes. It could be no worse than what is certain and inevitable under our present system of values, under which there is no reasonable hope of different results. Suppose we have: First, 'Owe no man anything' (Ko- mans xiii, 8); second, 'Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother' (Deuteronomy xxiii, 19); third, a fixed value for a healthy man's daily wage, or what he can produce, as a basis on which to establish a unit and standard of value ; fourth, the lands belong to the people, as much so under God's laws as the water, sky, and light and the earth, and all that is in it." This plan of fixing values, making exchanges, and con- ducting business and commerce is not Mr. Lincoln's exactly and altogether, but it carries the sense and substance of his convictions and the foundation principles on which he believed an honest and harmonious system could be built up for the conduct of human affairs. It was his wisdom, his statesmanship, applied, as he believed it should be, in the control of business, commerce, values, and the exchanges or dealings between men. It came, not in one evening's conversation on such sub- jects, but in hundreds, through ten years, or more, of his mature and most experienced observations and conclusions, as he talked and philosophized to a few who were always anxious for one of his pleasant evening entertainments, when his generous and exalted reflections led him to thoughts of what should come in regular, advancing reform when the cruel reign of slavery was overthrown. !N"immo Browne fully believed in these principles, and often made them the subject of discussion with Mr. Douglas, who agreed to their feasibility and justice so far that the time would come when they would prevail. In the depression that followed the wrecking panic of THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 253 1837, which lasted until the beginning of the Mexican War in the '40's, lands, property, labor, and all its productions went down to ruinous prices, often to nothing. Horses and cattle were as low as five to ten dollars a head, hogs down to one or two dollars; corn — then, as now, the most reliable staple production — to five cents a bushel, or less; and potatoes, cabbage, and many such productions, to fifty cents for a farm-wagon load, and wages down to nothing; for many an unemployed man was glad enough to do a hard winter's work for his board, and in summer and fall to earn enough to buy his winter clothing. It was a hand-to-mouth period. There were no im- provements in progress of much consequence, and no more than a temporary demand for extra help in harvest. A mechanic in the towns, or a farmer holding his o^ti and making a living, was doing well; but it taught lasting lessons of careful and economical life. It was a time of home-made clothing, home-made food, and home-built cabins. There were many families who did not spend as much as five dol- lars a vear in monev, who nevertheless lived well and were prosperous. Their principal expenditures were for cotton- yarn and tea, coffee, and sugar, if they used these. The women spun the linen and woolen yarns, and wove the fabrics for the household, and manufactured the wear- ing apparel. The girls of that day, in their wool and linsey gowns, adroitly plaided and colored, and with their bright headgear, and the home-tailored, bright, healthy young fel- lows, in their comfortable, unskimped suits of jeans, best when it was bluest, felt as fashionable and as much in society as the people of to-day. They met in their cordial, out- spoken way, and in their winter gatherings in the cabin homes, where sprightly, healthy boys and girls were of more concern than finer clothes and money, and in the cabin church and schoolhonse combined, where there was social life with better promise and more sincere friendship, higher 254 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. sentiment, more hopeful for a growing nation than the self- declared superiors who assemble in ease and dissemble in all, whose raiment, though gaudy, smooth, soft, and silken, is no better than the old homespun, and at its best is less beautiful than "a. lily of the field." It will always be a joy to every one who remembers the meetings of those sanguine, whole-souled young men and women who wore their "linsey woolsey" and "sea-blue jeans" with as much freedom, comfort, and ease as the purple became and graced the stately form of Csesar, to be reminded that no one ever enjoyed the society and merry- making more than Lincoln. There was consolation through the grinding period of "the hard times" that, though money was scarce, hard to get, and seldom used, and what was known to be in existence, a few had most of it, and kept it for the reasonable fear that if they parted with it they would never see it again, yet through all this no one went hungry, no one went richly-clad, but few were needy of clothing or food or fuel, or went suffering in any way that there was not a helping hand with something in it. There were no public improvements in progress of mo- ment after 1838 until 1850. There had been an earnest attempt to inaugurate at least a beginning in starting a canal and some railroad enterprises. Bonds in the sum of nine million dollars had been issued by the State in aid of the work, principally to construct the canal. Congress had made a land grant, one of the first mistaken gifts of the kind, of three hundred thousand acres — enough, it was sup- posed, to complete the canal, which it no doubt would have done if it had been honestly managed; but that appeared to be the thing most studiously and constantly avoided. When the work and progress were looked over after the panic, and the collapse which came was complete, a citizen said that "the balloon — the canal enter- prise — collapsed so flat that you can push it under any THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 255 door in the State-house, and return it to the Legislature, may be to the ver}' member who started it." These enterprises failed and collapsed, much the same as many others at the time, and a great many more since. Not that the lines of transportation were not needed; for they were for the public convenience, that the products so depressed might find a market and reach the needy of the cities. Some who should have known did not understand the work of building canals or railroads. Some who were to issue the State help as the work progressed did so with- out knowing anything of its progress. In short, the man- agement was a failure, and the badly-needed canal was left an unfinished, unsightly ditch, that flooded and damaged, rather than benefited, many farms. The work of issuing the State bonds and selling the- three hundred thousand acres of Government land "for what they would fetch," and the measurings and the fictions in figures, the ideal counting up, the line-stretching, and the selling of the lands for less than the Government price of a dollar and a quarter an acre, because they were reported unsalable, although a family could make a good living off of every hundred acres of it — all went on industriously un- til the limit had been reached and no more bonds could be issued. The land was all squandered, and the plundered State left without a mile of completed railway and no canal. The State was almost bankrupted, along with others in the same enterprises, and left without assets and the enor- mous debt of that period, nine million dollars, at eight per cent interest. The State's credit sank until auditors' warrants issued for the current expenses of the Government and officers' salaries were often discounted at forty and fifty per cent. It was reported worse than that at times ; and it was said of a governor, who was a steady smoker, that "he had to pick up all the half-smoked cigar-stumps he could find in the 256 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. halls of the State-house and on the streets, as his discounted salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year at the time would not permit the indulgence without this thrifty attention to supply." The depression continued for several years, and was only relieved in the excitement and change of interest and progress of the war and the addition of vast territory and their great mineral resources, from which time forward a new era of development awakened the Nation, The effects of this disrupting, destroying money system lasted, as all of them do, about ten years, and until, as a plain, old man said of that one, "In them days, up to and apast 1842, things got wus and wus, and everything went down, down to the bottom, until they got better because they could n't get any wus." It has rarely, if ever, happened that any one of our principal States has ever been so hampered as Illinois was in that great break-up, when the onerous taxes would not produce enough revenue to conduct the State Government, when auditors' warrants were flouted about the streets and clipped in the middle in the thrifty, infant pawnbroker shops of the time. Taking the rule that experience should have taught lessons of wisdom, we would have expected a "sound financial system" in the State afterwards; but in the bank-tumbling, burned-up rocket period, Illinois again led the van of bankrupted States from 1857-60. Only three out of more than sixty banks weathered the storm, and the "financiers' banking system" curled up in the sweep of the panic like the dry grass in a prairie fire, when more than a hundred millions went down as another tremendous loss and experience-lesson in the Hebrew system of banking, money-changing, credit, and commerce. During this time Lincoln was, like other hundreds of struggling young men, doing his best on a slender living to meet his burdens and expenses and lay the foundation THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 257 for usefulness and success in his profession. He did this, and in doing so he proved his high capability; for where a few like him — Douglas, Hardin, Breese, and Shields — did succeed, many bright young men failed. After the capital removal, Springfield began to grow, and soon became a pleasant and desirable town of its day, at- tracting many sensible, enterprising people, who made it what it maintained. In its growth a number of people who could look ahead and had the desire took up its real estate and building enterprises, in which they made and laid the foundations of substantial fortunes. Among these was a good friend of Lincoln's, who, while doing well and making money when Lincoln was doing the main work that made this possible, had the rare good sense to appreciate the un- tiring work of the young man, and be a helpful friend when he most needed and fully deserved such a one. William Butler was this friend, and was never less than that. What their personal relations were, none but them- selves knew, except that the friendship was mutual and honorable, and that it lasted. \^Tien Lincoln, with Stuart, took the upper part of one of the first two-story business buildings ever built on the "public square" for an office, he fitted up one of the back rooms for his sleeping apart- ment, when he also began taking his meals at Mr. Butler's. This arrangement of living he maintained for several years, until his marriage, in November, 1842. He plodded along through three years of panic and dis- tress, but never real want or famine, taking up no other work save that of his profession and what came of his po- litical life and leadership, which came to him without solici- tation. He continued a representative of Sangamon County to 1842, at least four years longer than he would have re- tained it had it not been for his unequaled fitness to ac- complish and complete the capital removal. He gave his profession all his attention possible in Ills 17 268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. line of work and oeciipation, never for any cause neglecting his studies nor his careful habits and steady application which he maintained. He gave the law all the time he could, but was kept out of court often for weeks, and part of the time in his public work, during his eight years' serv- ice in the Legislature. By this we can readily understand that his professional fees for this irregular work brought him small returns. There was one feature of it, however, which always bene- fited him, and in which he constantly kept the lead. He was a man full of life and tireless energy. He had the strength of Ajax and the pleading capabilities of Webster, Choate, or Clay — a man of such majestic mien and power and convincing strength that, in a period noted for brawls, turmoils, and knockdowns, his presence and attention com- manded the peace ; and it was a singular occurrence indeed to find a jury "that Lincoln could not take along with him just as he liked." With powers like these he was called to all the disturb- ances and encounters within his range of getting to them, some of which were often neighborhood quarrels rising into riot. The law business was usually in the line of enforcing or restoring law and order in communities where strong men were contending over rights to land entries; the set- tler against the land-sharks, who infested every Government land-office, and wrung the last cent out of every helpless victim, as such men have always done ; over roads and rights of way, and how to work them, and whether anybody would; over bridges, where and whether to build them ; over school districts, their boundaries, how large, how small, and where to put the house that had to be built; over towns and town sites ; and who would carry the load of those that failed, and those who would not. This was the line of torts and actions in law — the main ones in the beginning of his practice, when, without contest THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 259 or division of opinion of any kind, Lincoln was master in the settlement of all such disputes. Tliis gave him business and standing with the people for miles out of Springfield in every direction, as far as he could conveniently attend such work, and afterwards throughout several counties, extending as far east as Champaign and Vermilion, and to Danville, the county-seat and location of a Government land-office. In Danville and Springfield, where these offices were located, he had constant employment in helping every settler he could in the struggle which he generally had for his home- stead, to save it and him from the extortions and the steal- ing of it by the "land-sharks." Their schemes were so well laid and usually so persistently carried and held in collusion with the officers that in the early days of our Western set- tlement these "financiers" laid their tribute on and collected it from almost every first settler on our public lands. Lin- coln, as a lawyer, soon became known as the able and stead- fast friend of the settler; and it came to be said, to his last- ing honor, that "he took every settler's case he could attend to, and his work was alwavs the best that could be done. He never took a case against one, and he scared the land- sharks more than all the rest of the lawyers in the State." Many a settler and many a family saved their homestead through the determined will and work of this powerful man. His terrible invectives and ridicule became excruciating tor- ture as he laid open their schemes to defraud and dispossess the toiling, honest settlers of their home. "I respect," said he, "the man who properly named these villains land- sharks. They are like the wretched ghouls of the sea that follow a ship and fatten on its offal." In those days a settler could file a claim, pre-empt the land as his first entry, and in a term of twelve to fifteen months, under various acts of Congress, complete it. When the settler's claim was filed, the "land-shark" would file his counter claim, as there was no limit to the filing, whether 260 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. he wanted the land or not. When the first entry was to be completed, he would, if possible, compel every settler to pay him a fee of ten to a hundred dollars, as he measured the poor settler's ability to pay, or bid the land up to a higher price against him; for in all cases, so contested, the land was sold to the highest bidder. Lincoln did much to break up such work, for which the people thanked and hon- ored him. One case in this work will show his interest and illustrate it as well as a hundred. It was the custom of leading lawyers to travel over the circuits of several counties with the judge. Before the days of railroads, their ordinary way of traveling was on horseback, and usually each one owned his horse. The court, bar, and some friends, on one of these journeys, were on their way, one morning in April, coming from the west, some ten miles out of Springfield. There were several of them, all mounted. Mr. Lincoln had a strong, fine animal. He needed such a one to carry him well, and he "dearly loved a fine horse." The mud was deep and miry, so the company was making slow progress. The noise of a plunging horse in the mud and an excited man drew their attention. On seeing him, Mr. Lincoln grasped the whole situation in a moment. He dismounted, and, nearing the road, stood ready to meet the man on the tired horse, tugging along at his best, but another man on a more sprightly animal could be seen approaching. As the first rider came abreast, Lincoln hurriedly inquired, "John, is this the day of your final entry, and have you the money?" John was tired out with his twent3'-mile race, covered Avith mud, haggard and worn, discouraged almost to the point of despair, and about hopeless, notwithstanding his heroic struggle to save his homestead, by the fatigued and broken-down condition of his horse; for unless he could reach the land-office by noon and make final payment, his claim and his family's home would be open for filing and entry again, of which default THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 261 his pursuing neighbor was sure to take advantage. He was delayed in getting the last of the little sum so much needed, and now with ten miles of muddy roads ahead he had less than two hours to reach Springfield. Looking into Lincoln's great, honest face, he replied, ''Yes, I 've got the money ; but my horse cant make it.'' "Mine can," said Lincoln; "take him and save your land. Take the right-hand road a mile ahead of this, and get on the south road into town; by this you will save a mile. Take care of the horse as well as you can, but be sure to get there in time to save your land." Such incidents need no further explanation. This was a party of fairly representative men, mainly lawyers. The struggling settler's condition was not unusual; such things were happening all over the West, and they became used to them as men become used to other forms of distress and suffering about them. Xot one of them would have helped the man, save Lincoln, who knew the man better and ap- preciated the momentary opportunity. His better knowl- edge instantly discovered the settler's last chance and neces- sity, and he did then what he kept doing all his lifetime — lifted and lightened the burden of every heavy-laden soul that came his way. He persevered, kept up his law business and political work, which as he progressed were inseparable. Through all those grinding years of depression, he was the soul and spirit of every gathering he was in. The lawyer ready for the most orderly-conducted suit, or the "most rough-and- tumble fuss," men or rowdies were inclined to make it, holding the strength, will, and good sense to have it said, "Lincoln always leads in the wind-up." It should always be borne in mind that his successes and achievements were never in the slightest degree "happen so's," or accidental. He had the wisdom the Master gave him as leader, and the strength of a lion, high capacity, and fitness so rarely given 262 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. in God's economy, that it was genius, the all-around powers, light, and equipments, that made him one of the wisest and best of all the world's heroes or statesmen. That he used these tremendous powers discreetly, cau- tiously, and moderately when such exercise of them would accomplish his well-devised plans, was neither indication nor proof that he did not know how and when to use them in all their strength. This was established beyond contro- versy afterwards in the use of his own and the half-divided Nation's mighty forces with such bewildering strength, con- founding movements, patient, duty-crushing operations and consequences, that the transforming scene was splendid and majestic, beyond ideals, or the work of quarreling statesmen and ambitious warrior leaders, when over four millions fought so furiously under his hand and lead, for and against him, all wielded in his eventual control, in such destruction, to such fiery cremation of the evil cause, that the Nation is rebuilded stronger, more American because of it. In the evolutionary process of making farms and rich- producing fields out of prairies, forests, swamps, and the almost endless rolling plains away to the westward, building homes, schoolhouses and churches, villages, towns and cities, bridges, railroads and water-lines, improvements that brought every home in the State within five to ten miles of steam or water transportation, as educational, scientific, and religious systems filled every county, and as the people grew and prospered in wisdom and strength and waxed strong and great, Lincoln's law business and public service, which were always inseparable, kept pace, and as the great State and its surrounding ones of the Upper Mississippi Valley, unequaled in land and resources, rose in power and impor- tance, his work, increasing knowledge, stronger moorings, and better fixed relations kept steadily along with them. His friends, teachers, comrades, associates, and fellow- workers, as they and he progressed,, studied, and worked THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 263 out their several callings and duties in increasing numbers, became helpers, and the younger among us came to know him as a teacher, a man of morals, learning, and strong, positive character. As he grew in strength and capability, he also grew in the respect and confidence of all near and about him, among whom were the most sincere, courageous, and persevering men of the State. His office and himself became known and celebrated for the high character and standing of himself and his asso- ciates, and the men of business and social affairs among whom he lived, who were the equals of those in any western community, or of the Nation as well. He grew up in law and public occupation, among a people as well educated and equipped for life and its duties as any of his period or time. As the law rose from the care of the narrower limits and disputes of a new and rapidly-settling country to that of interests and undertakings where thousands of people were added, and millions in value, annually, when in number- less ways more intricate, specific, and technical knowledge and qualifications were necessities, he rose, too, in steady and equal progression to such distinction and merit that no one ever thought of finding a more reputable institution than his law office or a better-managed lawsuit, or wiser counsel given, than where he had done the work, taken the cause through the courts, or had been the counselor. f V^ Kir a 3.^ CHAPTER XII. IINCOLISr and Douglas grew up together, similarly situ- ated and surrounded in many ways. Douglas was one of the best-informed, well-studied-up, learned, and fearless contestants in law or politics, in or out of Congress. At no time did he or his friends consider Lincoln his in- ferior, but an equal in courts and public life, as the work in their current lives demonstrated beyond doubt. Some writers in contrasting the men have held Lincoln much superior in honor and morality, and in doing so have dis- credited Douglas. The truth is, that Lincoln's political integrity was sin- cere, firm, and candid. Douglas was a man of expediency and like most politicians, since Jacob negotiated with Laban, who have served their interests and made the best bargain they could. Douglas contended with men who believed that intrigue, if successfully covered up, was wise and fairly honorable statesmanship. He accepted and submitted to beliefs to unite and harmonize the conflicting elements in his party as measures of justifiable policy, in the same way that most party leaders of the time did. Whig and Democrat alike. Clay, the venerated Whig leader, in whom Mr. Lincoln be- lieved above all other men, held to this line of political life or honor constantly. He was a compromiser in that day, as he had been for his lifetime, assuring slavery and anti- slavery people that he held partial beliefs with both sides. Benton was opposed to slavery extension, but sustained it in his State, and was a slaveholder. 264 THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 265 Jackson was a pro-slavery man, but firm against disunion, and would have sacrificed slavery to prevent it. Douglas was against intervention on the slavery question, holding that slavery should be let alone as a domestic institution. Webster was against slavery, as he said, but agreed to the slavery-remanding laws, and denounced agitators of the question more severely than any man in his State. Van Buren, Harrison, Cass, Scott, Buchanan, and thousands of others would accept and defend Avhatever declaration their parties patched out and promulgated as readily as poli- ticians accept new policies and definitions of political prin- ciples to-day. Above all of them, two coming principal leaders sin- cerely declared their beliefs unequivocally and without pre- varication — Jefferson Davis for and Abraham Lincoln against slavery. There were many others, some of whom became able and noted leaders; but these two declared the issue, and fought it out. In 1840, Lincoln and Douglas canvassed the State of Illinois as chief speakers and leaders of their respective parties, continuing as such for almost twenty years afterwards, with increasing influence and strength, until one was the leader of the party he did so much to create, and became President; and the other, dis- credited and beaten by the minority of the party he had served better than Eichelieu or Wolsey did their coarse- minded, brutal kings, was never wrenched or moved one moment from the leadership of the loyal Democracy of the Nation. Lincoln became one of the State electors, or the candi- date for that office. He had to canvass the State, which he did successfully, meeting Douglas frequently, and hold- ing joint discussions with him in several towns where they happened to meet. This was then a custom, and a very sensible one, where every political meeting was made a joint one, when competent speakers of both parties were 266 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. present. Lincoln was made candidate for elector that year, and in every Presidential election afterwards to 1856, be- cause of his incomparable ability as a speaker and reasoner, and perhaps because of his inexhaustible humor, which brought thousands of people together wherever he spoke to hear the apt and well-told stories that would convulse a multitude. The emoluments of the position are wholly contingent. In this work they were nothing, for he was always good- natured and generous enough to deal out the post-offices and other contingents, such as judgeships, attorneyships, receivers and agents of the land-offices, commissionerships, and the lesser places about the public buildings and offices, in the fairest way he knew, with no place reserved for himself. In 1840, Douglas was Secretary of State of Illinois, but canvassed the State, from which time forward his leader- ship in the Democratic party was established. The Presi- dential contest turned on the smaller and personal differ- ences of the time. Van Buren, who was renominated, was soundly berated, and perhaps more or less unfairly abused, for his extravagance and derelictions of duty. '"Dick John- son," who was on the same ticket for Vice-President, had seen some Indian campaigning, and it was claimed that he had killed Tecumseh, the noted chieftain, which was stoutly denied by the Whigs. Harrison, the Whig candidate, who was elected, with Tyler as Vice-President, was nominated mainly because of his military and frontier service. He had been the friend of the settlers in all their encounters with the Indians. He had fought for them and with them in a long service, and became popular as "the log-cabin can- didate." The campaign was more notable to Lincoln and Douglas for the free and vigorous manner of conducting it than any issue involved in it. They came out of it un- questioned and unrivaled leaders of their parties. The rela- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 267 tions of the States and the slavery question were avoided and not discussed, as party beliefs were about the same on those subjects. The most absorbing questions were, who and what office this or that political leader or helper should have, and a delicate discrimination was necessary whenever offices were at the party's or any leader's disposal. The policy of Jackson, brief and plain, as explained by Marcy, of New York, "that in politics as in war, it is always fair that to the victors belong the spoils," was always held to be a demoralizing system for the distribution of patronage by the ones who had no part in the division, but the amelior- ation of opinion and the "sudden change of heart" on the subject when they got offices to receive and distribute, was amazing, surpassing ordinary belief. The AYhigs gained a decisive victory, which was perhaps a more emphatic expression in favor of better and higher standards in the administration of public offices and public aifairs than any expression of party belief. The Demo- cratic party had been in office for three terms, and, as with all parties which retain unbroken power for any long period, public affairs were running at loose ends. Accusations flew thick and fast as to the honesty and integrity of some of Van Buren's appointees. He and his Cabinet treated these as frivolous charges. They paid little attention to meas- ures that promised relief to the people. The distress and depression of every value had continued for three years, and, almost exasperated by the lack of interest of the Van Buren Administration in their welfare, the people demanded a change, and got it. It was, however, almost a barren vic- tory, for Harrison, who was infirm and in feeble health, lived only one month after his inauguration, when he was succeeded by John Tyler, of Virginia, who had been elected with him. He soon faltered, dissembled a short period, apostatized to the Southern propaganda, which demanded more slave territory, and the Democratic party. 268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. In the time of the depression, about September, 1842, when State warrants were at their lowest, an unfortunate affair occurred between Lincoln and the State auditor, who, though in no way more responsible for den}dng payment than thousands of others, yet being auditor could not avoid much of the ridicule put upon him by the Whig news- papers. One of the leading papers was the Springfield Journal, which published without reserve all sorts of ridic- ulous assaults on Shields, the auditor, an irascible, high- tempered, but popular young Irishman. Shields, through his next friend. General Whiteside, demanded retraction of what he and his friends considered slanderous attacks upon him, or the name of the responsible author, from the publisher. Mr. Lincoln had written one of the objection- able attacks, but in it he intended no personal criticism of the auditor except as one of the party responsible for the depreciation of warrants. Others, young ladies of Lincoln's acquaintance, had contributed more ridiculous stories. The publisher, not wanting to stand responsible to the angered auditor or the Indian war brigadier, in his dilemma appealed to Lincoln, who, he was sure, would have no lack of courage, whatever might be its termination. The publisher Avas a ]\Ir. Francis, a fairly able writer of his day, who, after publishing the communications of the ladies, should have had the gallantry to defend them. How- ever, he shifted his responsibility, for what reason there was no explanation. Lincoln took it up in the same good- natured, criticising way that he conducted the matter from the beginning. However, nothing could appease WTiiteside and the fiery little son of Erin but "an affair of honor," which Mr. Lincoln proceeded to plan out to a more ridicu- lous ending, if that were possible, than its ludicrous be- ginning. Lincoln accepted the combat, thus giving him choice of weapons and distances. The small party of prin- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 2G9 cipals, friends, and surgeons proceeded to the field in Mis- souri, opposite Alton, Illinois. The Lincoln party announced that the "affair" would be settled with broadswords of the largest side, the combatants being restricted to a space six feet square for each, with a railing between them. Shields' friend, Whiteside, loudly denounced the weap- ons and the distance as barbarous in the extreme, and an unheard-of discrimination against his small, shorter-limbed principal. Mr. Lincoln's friend. Dr. Merryman, as jolly, good-hearted a man as his name indicates, replied: "That is my principal's belief, that is at least as to the barbarous part of it. He had little responsibility and no inclination to make it more serious than may be avoided; still without fear, if your principal is determined to carry it to bloody conclusions, he has only exercised his privileges under the code in choosing weapons and limiting distances, so that if the barbarous work is to proceed, the chopping up will be as thoroughly and skillfully done as possible." Neither Shields nor Whiteside would agree to the use of broadswords, and thus the famous affair ended, as Lincoln planned it should end when the excited Irishman and his more unreasonable friend demanded a combat. Whiteside kept up the quarrel after the return from Alton with Lin- coln's friend, Mr. Butler, whom he challenged. Butler ac- cepted it, and was ready to fight, choosing rifles at only fifteen paces. This, too, like the other, was too barbarous for Whiteside, and so that affair ended. Mr. Lincoln was drawn into this much-talked-of affair more to protect his friends, the ambitious young lady correspondents, than for any other purpose. He made the best of it, and prepared the way to laugh it off, as he intended from the beginning. After it was over he said: "I did not have anything like enmity toward Shields, and did not intend that any hann should come to either of us. I knew that, with a long broad- 270 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. sword, I could have poked off a little man like Shields for a day or two." He was sensible enough never to refer to it except as a "boyish freak." They became friends, and understood each other better afterwards. Shields, although he was a quick-tempered man and rashly jumped into many difficulties, was nevertheless one of real merit, and won in his adopted country's service more real distinction than have all his detractors if lumped together. He was made a brigadier-general in the war with Mexico. In heroically leading his command at Cerro Gordo he was shot through his right lung, and survived, which was a notable circumstance, showing strong vitality and active recuperative powers. On his return he was elected a senator from Illinois; after this he removed to Minnesota, where he was elected and served another term in the Senate from that State. When the war for the Union began. President Lincoln ap- pointed him a brigadier-general. He was then a man past mature age, and although not able for field service he will- ingly undertook it, and served until the close of the war, thus rendering for the second time worthy and courageous service for his adopted country. In this he earned the un- rivaled distinction of defeating "Stonewall" Jackson, who was perhaps one of the most determined fighters of the Con- federacy. After this, when quite old, about the seventies, when living in Missouri, he was elected and served another short term in the Senate from that State, doing what no other man so far has done — becoming a member of the United States Senate from three States. He was a loyal man, who truly loved our country, and appreciated its many bless- ings. He led thousands of Irishmen to serve under the flag of the Union. He had faults and foibles, and as there are few who do not have them, he will be remembered as a courageous and patriotic Irish-American, who served his THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 271 country and fought for it in two wars, in which his wounds were honorable. He did this while his small-minded, short- sighted detractors were fighting him at long range, with nothing more daring than ink and rusty pens. Keither Lincoln nor Shields ever referred to the differ- ence after the return from Alton. His appointment by Mr. Lincoln was surely a sufficient forgetting, if any further one had ever been needed. Lincoln never was a disputer to blows if he could avoid it, and through his life pacified every one in every quarrel he could, where quarrels were common and frequent all about him in his early days. In mature age and wisdom, on the subject of peaceful settlements of disputes and contentions, in administering reproof in the spirit of the Master, he once wrote out and delivered as an admonition to a young man who had been arraigned at the bar of a court for a quarrelsome habit, and a certain dispute, that brought this punishment, the repri- mand by Mr. Lincoln of the peacemaker's duty and the disputer's need of submission, in terms that should be re- membered as long as men honor and respect the name of Lincoln. It is as follows: "The advice of a father to his son, 'Beware Of entrance to a quarrel ; but being in, Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee,' is good, but not the best. Quarrel not at all. No man re- solved to make the most of himself can spare the time for personal contention; still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right, and yield lesser ones though clearly your own. Better give your pathway to a dog than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite." 272 ABB AH AM LINCOLN. Major Stuart was elected to Congress in 1840, in the victorious "Log-cabin and Hard-cider" campaign. This took him out of the law so completely that the partnership necessarily came to a close. Lincoln was alone in his work until early in 1841, when he formed a partnership with Judge Stephen T. Logan, one of his preceptors, who more than an}^ other man started him in the profession. Logan was one of the strongest, closest read, and most indefati- gable lawyers, either as counsel or pleader, of the Spring- field bar, or in the States. He was, too, a man of sterling integrity, who lived a strictly moral life, whose character and reputation were all that upright living and close attention to his work could make it. Lincoln was growing very fast when he made this busi- ness connection. He had made a fine canvass and left a striking impression of his talents all over the State in his stump oratory and addresses. He had a plain, common way of talking to the people that attracted thousands wherever he went. His fame as an orator spread all over the country, and the calls on him for speeches afterwards were always more than he could fill. At this time there was more busi- ness in Logan's office than he could in any way give his personal attention to. The thought was, in making the partnership, that Lincoln could take all the jury cases, make the oral pleadings, and do the principal part of the talking, but Logan would take care of the petitioning, carefully- written pleadings, and the record work, with well-noted briefs in every case. In short, Logan would conduct the par- ticular and intricate part of the work requiring knowledge, and Mr. Lincoln v\^ould do most if not all the talking, and maintain his pre-eminence as an orator, doing which they would increase the name and standing of the old-established Logan law office, with Lincoln as an incidental help. However, Lincoln soon took his own status in the law courts, as he had done in the forum. He was well founded TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 273 in the principles of right and justice, and his capacious mind had stored the traditions, precedents, and principles of the science so well, that as soon as he became familiar with the forms and course of pleadings, he could not only- take care of these and the arguments in a suit, but in a few months he could and did take care of all the work in them, however intricate they were, as well as Logan. William May; Senator Edward D. Baker, killed at Ball's Bluff in 1862; Milton Hay, John Palmer, Shelby Cullom, were all of them associates, students, or partners of Logan. This office, besides being one of the strongest institutions in law practice and business, finally became one of the best law schools in the profession as well, where hundreds of young men got the knowledge and training that prepared them for the profession. Logan not only recognized Lin- coln's genius and leadership of men, but believed, as he often said, that "of all the men with whom I have been associated, he is the most careful, untiring lawyer in the study and man- agement of his cases I have ever met," and again, "He would study out his case and make about as much out of it as anybody, and his ambition as a lawyer increased and he grew constantly. By close study of each case as it came up he got to be quite a formidable lawyer." In these closely-related facts we have indisputable proof of the wonderful power and resources of Lincoln. Within a few years, entering these law offices with meager oppor- tunities, but not without intense study and the most deter- mined application, with no means except what he earned, with no friends except those which he drew towards him, with no powerful influence or moneyed interests in his favor, at thirty-two years of age he became the associate, on equal conditions, of the ablest and most prosperous lawyer in the State. If he had done no more than to be the accepted equal of Judge Logan, it would have been phenomenal, and a triumph 18 274 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. which few men accomplish. This was all that Logan did, learned, able, experienced, and justly reputed as he was and deserved to be. But of Lincoln it is perhaps the time when he came to his matured manhood and the opening of his wonderful career. When he began to have impressions, or more truly inspirations, of a great and pressing duty before him, when to all outward appearances he had reached final success after years of toil and privation, even then he was often plunged into periods of the deepest melancholy without his control or volition. The association with Logan was of great and lasting ad- vantage to Lincoln in many ways. It gave help and a stronger basis for his already well-formed moral character, about which so many able and well-learned in the profession about him were careless and indifferent, and some even much worse. Logan was conducting a well-regulated, systematized, and profitable business, which Lincoln shared at once. Now for the first time in his professional life he was in a situ- ation to expect and receive fair remuneration for his services. As many a struggling politician has learned to his loss, and as we have related of Lincoln, up to this time much of his work was done for those who were in politics with him, and who never paid for political service. In the Logan partnership this was all changed. Business going through his office had always brought reasonable remuneration, and in the partnership it was not to be and was not changed. It would be hard to see how Lincoln could have ever got out of his unpaid-for work and way of con- tinuing it without the aid of a strong man like Logan. Most of this relation is from personal remembrance of Lincoln's talks on business later in life, once particularly when he remarked: "I never felt my independence or the real good of it, until a few months after my association with Judge Logan, when our fees came in as regularly as the busi- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 275 ness progressed. He was a sound-headed man, under whose management everything was done with regularity and dis- patch. In my careless way of getting into business I needed such help, and could not have succeeded in my situation without it. His methods and training were of incalculable and lasting benefit to me, and I can not too strongly impress the necessity of such habits on young men.'' It behooved Lincoln, as it would have done any other man, to get down to the hardest and most persevering work and study, if he had desire and ambition to maintain him- self in public estimation and make himself in his profession the equal of any one at the bar. There were many able men in the Springfield bar of that day, learned in the law and famed in later 3'ears as governors, senators, representa- tives, and soldiers, when the lawyer who kept his place with them was sure to have all he could do of work and application. Of these there were, that became famous, Edwards, an able, learned man, who had been governor, and Governor Eeynolds, the "sly fox," who, as we have seen, campaigned with his volunteers. Then there was Treat, who became one of the ablest jurists of the land for a lifetime; Hardin, who was killed at Buena Vista; and the brilliant senator, statesman, and soldier, Edward D. Baker, than whom no more persuasive, eloquent, or effective speaker ever pleaded in courts or Senate; Douglas, whom we know to have had no superior; and a hundred other young men, whose talents and learning made them the equals of the public men and statesmen then or now. On November 4, 1842, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd were married in Springfield, at the residence of Governor Edwards. Eev. Charles Dresser, a Presbyterian minister, solemnized the marriage, and united them in its holy bonds. Miss Todd was a Kentucky girl, where she grew to healthy, vigorous womanhood. She was a reputable lady of good 276 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. family, descended from the people who made the beginning of the town of Lexington, patriotic enough to name it for the battle made historic in the founding of the great Ee- public. She was not celebrated as a handsome woman as many of the good old State have been, but she had a fine ap- pearance, a cultivated, easy, and very agreeable manner, always sprightly, energetic, and lively, with self-control and refinement that made her attractive and entertaining. The marriage was an eligible one. Both they and their friends were satisfied. They lived happily together, and the family life of the Lincolns was in every way irreproachable. They were acquainted for two years, from the time of the lady's first visit to Springfield. This should be all concern- ing such an event that should be told, where the contracting parties were so well satisfied and lived for so many years in the quiet content and happiness of family and social life, where nothing ever disturbed the easy-flowing current of those who lived within each other. Nevertheless rumor and the inquisitive Yankeeism that will let nothing alone, regardless how cruel and hurtful the doing, or how sacred or homekeeping the subject may be, said, "that there were stories about Lincoln's love afEairs, that he was thoughtful and sometimes in deep melancholy, and they wondered if he really was happy, and that he had written some desponding letters." This was partly true. He had written some melancholy letters to intimate friends, particularly the Speeds and Major Stuart, who knew both parties intimately, who were indiscreet enough to surrender them for publication. These stories and the letters all evidenced the fact told us by the old Negro woman in Ken- tucky, which was true of Lincoln's whole life: "That Abe moped round an' had spells, an' we all got mighty feared that he was losin' hissef, but he didn't. He was all right agin in a day or two, and peart as ever." This was not the only event that put his great sensitive THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 277 soul in deep and thoughtful melancholy for a period, nor has he been alone so affected in what thousands meet and pass so indifferently. He was a kind, deeply thoughtful man, who never met any duty in life without earnest consider- ation and the absorbing interest, that usually brought all there was of doubt or burden in it on himself, when the apparent responsibility threw him into those periods of gloom and melancholy. We will find them again in every turn as new difficulties beset him. It appears in this one, and it should not be omitted here, that the great change coming over him and into his life, and the uncertainty that this responsibility created, threw him into deep thoughtfulness — a mirthful or less serious subject to some of his friends, but profound and doubtful to him — and further authenticated in that he was young and suffi- ciently indiscreet to trust his heartaches to those who weighed them as they did their pounds of gold, and "joked the fellow Avho pouted o'er his love." There was one way in which these stories should have been righted in those days of compromise and piecemeal adjustment. They should have applied Judge Douglas's doctrine of non-intervention, and have declared that mar- riage and the musings of sympathetic persons concerning it were "^domestic institutions under the Constitution," over which the public should be respectful enough neither to attempt to exercise influence nor control, especially as these subjects were so emphatically none of their business. In the Presidential campaign of 1844, Clay was for the third time in his life nominated by the Whigs. Freling- huysen, of New Jersey, was on the ticket for Vice-Presi- dent. Van Buren, who had succeeded Jackson from 1836 to 1840, who was defeated by Harrison in the latter year, was confident of receiving the Democratic nomination. Tyler, who had been elected Vice-President with Harrison in 1840 as a Whig, on his succession to the Presidency betrayed the 278 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Whig party, went plump into the body of the Southern slavery extensionists at once, and favored and forwarded their schemes with the full power and influence of his Ad- ministration for the annexation of Texas and as much other western territory as might be gained in war or cession. It so came about that in 1844, as the result of incessant intrigue and scheme-projecting for their institution, the South was in a better condition for another breaking up of compromises than they had been since 1820, and would not submit to the nomination of Van Buren, a Northern man, who was equivocal on their most pronounced purpose. The nomination of Clay, which was made, first paved the way. If the Whigs could nominate a Southern man, a slaveholder, surely the better trained and disciplined Demo- cratic party could as well. There never was a better planned and executed campaign than that of the slave extensionists that year. They would have won with Clay, for he was known not to be much, if at all, opposed to annexation, and before the election, becoming alarmed, after having been for months almost sure of success, he wrote a letter approv- ing it without qualification. The Democrats were not willing to risk Van Buren on ' their vital question. They would have preferred Clay if the contest had been between them. They made preparation, and united all their delegates in support of one of their most experienced and best qualified statesmen, James K. Polk, of Tennessee, who had long been a representative in Congress, a fearless, well-trained, determined leader, who had been one of Calhoun's associates in public life, and one of his most zealous believers, fully agreeing in the plans and poli- cies of Calhoun himself. When the Convention met, Van Buren had a majority of the delegates, who repeatedly voted for him. But the Southern leaders realized their opportunity, and instead of agreeing to a majority selection, which was the custom of THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 279 all other parties and of their own, except when the slave section could not maintain its power under such common and sensible methods, an old, almost forgotten rule requiring the assent of two-thirds of the votes before a,nj nomination was declared, if objection was made, was revived, and held to be a binding rule at the time. The enforcement of this rule defeated Van Buren, as it did several candidates afterwards, and was one of the un- democratic processes by which the South so long retained control of the Democratic part}', and eventually ruined it so far as to retire it from public affairs for twenty-four years or more. It was the summer of 1842 that Lincoln, Baker, and Hardin were candidates for the Whig party nomination to Congress. The district had a small Whig majority when a popular candidate was selected, such as Stuart. The State was Democratic, and no small part of the reasons why the district was not so was because of the political ability and indefatigable labor of Lincoln. Being the capital district there were, as in the law profession, many capable, aspiring men whose ambition usually took them into politics. It was nevertheless uncommon that in a Congressional district there should be three such coming leaders as Hardin, Baker, and Lincoln, all of whom were destined to high distinction, fear- less patriotic service, violent and tragic death in the dis- charge of duty. Hardin received the nomination in 1842, Baker in 1844. It is noticeable in this, as it continued to be, that though Lincoln was the man of affairs, the contriving and resource- ful manager in his party without anything like an equal, when desirable positions were at hand he good-naturedly helped nominate and elect some one else, as he did Hardin and Baker. In those days of "hard cider," and many harder and stronger liquors, there was a deal of intemperance every- 280 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. where, and the country was full of drunkards, made so in part perhaps by abundant and low-priced liquor. It was a "devil's broth," and not only intoxicated and drove men mad drunk, but killed almost as surely as it brutalized the sense and soul of its victims. The land was filled with the wrecks and remnants of what had been talented, industrious, and promising men. There was not a vocation or industrial occupation that had not been robbed of many of its brightest members, who went down ingloriously, while their brothers were struggling and fighting for better lives and higher standards of living. When thousands of devoted men and women were arousing themselves to work and organized en- deavor to save these poisoned victims from a worse than living death, society was full of this unbridled drinking- habit. The law offices, the courts, legislative, executive, and judicial bodies were stricken, leaving every year thou- sands of the best, the bravest, and most useful men of their time in the epidemic that killed the body, the mind, and the soul. It was part of Lincoln's character, and a stern, un- flinching, and determined part of it throughout his life, to live up to as high moral standards in every part of his life and labor. This he honestly adhered to and carried out, no matter what were the influences surrounding him in those days, when, if men were not more honest, they were more outspoken and candid than sometimes later. In a court and bar and attaches of twenty to thirty men, many of whom were young and forming their character, he would be the only one who did not use liquor or tobacco in any way. He was never obnoxious nor in the slightest degree imperti- nent in his work to try to reform or adjust any one's life to his own ideas of living, but in his unobtrusive ways and steady example, he led many a poor, characterless man to good or better standing, and led a pure, blameless life in act and powerful example that will make a purer American THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 281 manhood when Lincoln, our most complete and finished man, becomes our national ideal. In those years of cheap whisky, dwarfed lives, and rum- rotted intellects, he heartily united with a company of the brave and fearless men and women of the time in about the first crusading organization against the drinking, sure-kill- ing rum-habit — "The Washingtonians," a famous temper- ance society, that saved many a victim and accomplished wondrous good in its day. He was an organizer, and in visits to difi'erent places he organized and started several healthy local temperance societies. As an illustration of his early powers and his zeal in the cause, it is preserved that at one of these organizing meetings he said, in part: "Washington is the mightiest name of earth long since in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reforma- tion. On that name no eulogy is expected. It can not be. To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Wash- ington is alike impossible. Let no one attempt it. In sol- emn awe we pronounce the name, and in its naked, death- less splendor leave it shining on." One of the pertinent reasons why Lincoln was so little understood in his day by the men with him and about him was because of the flagrant dissipation that was seen con- stantly all around him, and in which he never participated. There were men that often had business with him who could not help knowing something of his qualifications and capacities, yet whose entire and only knowledge of him was gathered from their business relations; but they, by reason of habits and differing beliefs, were as ignorant of the inner greatness of the man as though they had never seen or known him. When he was through the business of the court or as- sembly, that was often composed of the jolly, bibulous, dis- sipated men whose society he never enjoyed, he left them at once for his home, his office, or some quiet place, where 282 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. he read or studied; and, if without books or sympathizing friends, he used to ponder in his thoughtful melancholy, and frame those startling descriptions and heroic thoughts that, like some trenchant blade, cut their way through the first dismal load of ignorance or wrong that met him. There is nothing more delightful or imperishable in one's thoughts than the talk of an hour with him after the dull day's work and tedious pleadings in the courtroom, when lightened of labor for a little rest and reflection. His pleasing waySj his timely and clear-headed advice, always to higher pur- poses or better performance, his wit and humor, that passed like a little stream through a green meadow in June, were BO charming that they will last and restore themselves when memory recurs to them. In the memorable campaign of 18-1-i he was not nomi- nated for Congress, though entitled to a nomination by party service and general consent; but he yielded to Baker, who was young, ambitious, and very anxious. He was not nominated for governor, which office he declined, but pa- tiently submitted again as the man of all work, became a member of the Whig committee for the management and conduct of the campaign, and an elector-at-large for the State. In the work of that year he took a more active and energetic part than ever. He had reached a better de- velopment, a fuller knowledge of his wonderful powers "to reason with the people, and, in the use of facts, illustrate and establish our beliefs." The Whig platform that year was in favor of Clay's pro- tective tariff, a national bank, and distribution of the pro- ceeds of the sales of public lands to be divided among the States for internal improvements. Calhoun had not only committed the Democratic party to his pro-slavery plans, but to "free trade" also — an industrial system fitted to the cheapest form of labor, with no imposts on manufactured wares or articles, nor on the production of agricultural THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 283 crops by men in competition with slave labor, and no pro- tection to manufacturers or their employees, which the Whig party, by its policy, favored and contemplated. A stronger claim of the Whigs to jjopular favor was thought to be the treacherous abandonment of his party by Tyler, elected a Whig, but who, upon his succession, became the most supple and serviceable President which the slave- extensionists ever won to their cause or placed in authority. If Clay had been as firm in his party belief as Webster, or even as much so as Scott, and maintained his opposition to the admission of Texas at the time as premature, if for no other reason, his chances for election could scarcely have been better than they were in June of that year; but when the South accomplished Polk's nomination. Clay became alarmed at the desertions going on all around him in the South. To stem the disastrous tide, he wrote what was called the 'Alabama Letter," ambiguously written, but cir- culated and construed in the South as an assent to annexa- tion. This was a serious blunder, such, however, as com- promisers are always forced to on questions of principle, or even policies based on sectional or racial divisions. It gained him no strength in the South, and did not stop the disintegration in his party. He was too late, and they were entirely satisfied with Polk, who was free from any anti- slavery record or sentiment like that of Clay's, "That the system of slavery would eventually give way and be abol- ished in the strength of overwhelming population and in its competition with free labor." The letter did lose him the support in the North which would have elected him. Thousands of anti-slavery Whigs joined the Free Soil or Abolition party, turning New York and some other States to Polk, which made Clay's third and final defeat for President. He was a remarkable man in many respects, followed more sincerely and tenaciously because of his wonderful personality than any leader in 284 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. politics since Washington. This is shown in the devotion of Lincoln and thousands of sincere anti-extensionists, who faithfully supported him, not because of his belief on the most important subject — for he appeared to have none — but for their faith in the integrity and capabilities of the man. Late in the canvass, alarmed at the defection in the Northern States, he wrote again, affirming his objec- tions to annexation at the time. The Whig position on annexation was unnatural, almost untenable; for Bowie, Travis, Crockett, and Fannin, all Americans, with hundreds of volunteers like them, had gone down in glorious sacrifice at Goliad and the Alamo; and Sam Houston had won his great victory at Jacinto, that secured independence, and made Texas a nation. They were our own people, had won in their fight for a nation and the magnificent domain of an empire, with our own people in control of it, and they were anxious to join us. The heart of the American people went out to them, notwithstanding the spread of slavery, which was not looked after in time. When the eventual control came to us in war, there was no delinquency on the part of our people; and the volunteers from Illinois and Kentucky, under Hardin and Clay, who fell in victory at Buena Vista were gallant and brave and as decided for annexation as the Mississippi vol- unteers under Jefferson Davis. It so happened that the victorious leaders of those volunteer armies that made the Nation continental — Scott and Taylor — were Whigs, and were afterwards nominated by the Whig party for President: Taylor in 1848, when he was elected, and Scott in 1852, when he was defeated, both of whom were selected as can- didates because of their military service and distinction. The acquisition of Texas was as inevitable in that day as that the United States is the predominating power in North, Central, and South America. Webster, through the Tyler Administration, and subsequently in the Senate, THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 285 with the help of Judge Douglas and a few Northern Demo- crats, in the negotiations of that period, saved to us Oregon and Washington. Had it not been for the narrow-sighted Administration of Polk, we would have held the Pacific coast country without a break to the line of the Eussian possessions, since purchased. But the justice then denied us is yet within our reach and power to-day, whenever it may be necessary to exercise it, and take the contiguous and similarly-populated region from Vancouver to Mt. Elias, and the whole territory of the Mackenzie and Yukon Kivers. Lincoln's fealty and faith in Clay was undoubted proof of the sterling qualities of the man. He was in almost every one of the more than one hundred counties, in which his powerful addresses were as strong tributes to the leader as they were complete in political faith and belief. He, like many Whigs, mourned the defeat of Clay as an irrep- arable loss. For himself he had the dawning ambition of the success of the man and the policy that would settle the unadjusted and, at that time, unadjustable slavery ques- tion on the lines of a gradual extinction of the evil, as fore- shadowed in one of Clay's explanatory letters, which, in Lincoln's opinion, cost him the election. These were the rays of the morning light on the path- way which he was to tread in faithful service, devotion, and sacrifice. Then, as the subject was uppermost in Clay's letter, it filled Lincoln's mind, as the writer often heard him tell in later years, when he said: "The slavery question often bothered me as far back as 183G-40. I was troubled and grieved over it; but after the annexation of Texas I gave it up, believing, as I now do [1854], that God will settle it, and settle it right, and that he will, in some in- scrutable way, restrict the spread of so great an evil; but for the present it is our duty to wait," We see by this that in the year 1844 there was a dis- 286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. tinct thought that God would, in some way, light the way, and that he would follow — impressions that grew and strengthened in development. In his party address, 1844, which he prepared, came more of the breaking light: "That union is strength is a truth that has been known, illus- trated, and declared in various ways and forms in all ages of the world. That great fabulist and philosopher, ^sop, illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks, and He, whose wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers, has de- clared that a house divided against itself can not stand." Thus it came to him as far back as 1844, in the light of a prophecy foreshadowing the coming division on the slave question. It was to be defined in many forms and by statesmen of many differing opinions and qualifications; but it was given to the plain, strong-minded Lincoln to express the foundation fact on the principles and in the language of the Master himself. It was the strongest de- nunciation ever uttered against the system; for if it would divide the house of the Nation it was indeed a woeful and perilous wrong. This was Lincoln's prophecy or foreshadow- ing of the coming storm seventeen years before it burst upon us. Lincoln's association with Logan strengthened him in every moral purpose; for in addition to the regular methods of conducting business, studious, orderly habits prevailed, and the idleness and dissipation which ran in so many law offices was never thought of or permitted. In December, 1844, after the election of Polk, when Congress met, there was a majority in both branches in favor of the annexation of Texas. The election of Polk over so popular a leader as Clay was due to Clay's ambi- tious desire to conciliate the two positive factions of his party and supporters in the beginning, and be elected on the basis of compromising the difficulties, as had been done before. Both factions distrusted him, resulting in a pro- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 287 noimced victory for Polk and the Annexationists. Both Houses of Congress passed resolutions instructing President Tyler to proceed in negotiations for the admission of Texas as one of the States of the Union. President Jones, of the Texan Eepublic, called its Con- gress into extra session at the same time. Commissioners were at once appointed, and the terms of settlement and admission were pushed forward to a conclusion as rapidly as possible in that day, when communication between Wash- ington City and Austin, Texas, took weeks for what could now be done in as many days. In order to gratify Tyler's desire to accomplish the admission during his term, an in- formal agreement between the Commissioners was approved by him a few hours before the end of his term, March 4, 1845, and Texas, by a joint resolution of Congress, was annexed and declared to be United States territory. The act of Congress providing for its admission as a State was not agreed to until the first session of the next Congress, in December, 1845. These events brought about immediate and very important results in our history. It was, first, a signal success, so far, of the plans of the slave- extensionists. Slavery had been introduced into the terri- tory as fast as the American, or, as it was called, the Texan, occupation progressed. The emigration that filled it as fast as it was taken was about all from the slave States. Those of the settlers who owned slaves took them along, so that, at the time of annexation, there was not a settle- ment in the added territory where slavery did not exist. The agreement, or act of cession and admission, further provided that, as soon as population and the convenience of the inhabitants justified, the Territory might be subdi- vided, and four other States — five in all — might be made and admitted as States. Calhoun and his hierarchy were not mistaken in their opinion that their powers were vastly increased. CHAPTER XIII. THE opponents of annexation had predicted war with Mexico as a certain result. The Tyler and Polk Admin- istrations expected nothing less; and the little prepara- tion that was possible under the laws then in force was made. As it was expected, Mexico resisted the appropria- tion, without its assent, of territory that had belonged to it and had been a part of its domain since its independence and treaty with Spain, about 182-i. A heavy Mexican force of more than twenty thousand was moved up to the line of the Bio Grande, under command of two of their most experienced officers — Generals Arista and Ampudia. General Zachary Taylor, one of the most energetic and ex- perienced officers of our little army, was sent forward to the Rio Grande with a small force in the summer of 184:5. General Taylor held the line of the Neuces River with his force until about March, 1846, when^ by direction of the President, he moved westward, and occupied the east side of the Rio Grande, opposite the Mexican city of Matamora, which was, without doubt, an overt act, in effect, the beginning of hostilities. Taylor was about sixty years of age, bronzed with the Southern sun and hardened by healthy outdoor exercise; but he was still an able man, not past his prime. He had seen almost forty years of pio- neer military service in the Florida, Cherokee, Seminole, and other Indian wars, and so well adapted, known, and experienced in Indian warfare that he knew personally al- most every chief of a hundred warriors or more who had fought and resisted the United States for more than forty years. 288 THE MEN OF TITS TTME. 289 He was a soldier trained in the actual field of war. He was an American, too, without a superior in action at the time, and with skill, aptitude, and strength and celerity to get into a fight and stay there, with no other thought than certain victory. These qualities were so thoroughly wrought into his character that he had been known in the army and over the Western and Southern frontier for many years as "Eough-and-ready" Zach. Taylor. He often had been and was always ready for an Indian fight in two or three min- utes. His maxim was, "JS'ot to be ready to fight on five minutes' notice, but without it." He was in no way rash or imprudent, but, as a frontier soldier had to be, was always ready to fight with whatever force he had, and to make the best of it in the use of every resource at hand, "and never pay enough attention to being licked to think about it, but be sure to win every time you fight." General Taylor built Fort Brown at the mouth of the Eio Grande in March and April, 1846. In May, General Arista, with a ]\Iexican force, crossed to the east side of the river. His command numbered six thousand. Taylor met him with his force of twenty-three hundred at Palo Alto, a small stream, and defeated him after an engagement of five hours, in which one hundred Mexicans were killed and wounded. The American loss was four killed and forty wounded. The Mexicans retreated from the field of Palo Alto after the battle, on the 8th of May, to Resaca, a ravine, where the Americans defeated Arista again the next day, May 9th. The losses in killed and wounded were about the same. In the disorderly retreat, with the obstruction of the river, the Mexicans lost about one thousand captured, some field pieces, and more arms than prisoners. The American forces crossed the Rio Grande, May 18th, and took possession of Matamora with little resistance. On the 19th of September, 1846, General Taylor invested the fortified city of Monterey, farther to the southwest. A 19 290 ABB AH AM LINCOLN. siege was begun and carried on with daring and bravery and the capture of the outer works on the second and third days. On the 24th of September, General Ampudia surren- dered the city and all its military supplies, arms, and equip- ments, and six thousand prisoners. The American loss was a hundred and twenty killed and three hundred and sixty- eight wounded. The Mexican loss was not ascertained; but it was much less, as they fought behind fortifications and inclosures. After this signal victory, through influences at Wash- ington which were never disclosed. General Taylor was vir- tually superseded, and the plan of campaign, as it had been designed and, so far, successfully conducted under him, was entirely changed. Instead of re-enforcing General Taylor and sustaining him in his campaign through northeast Mexico, by the way of San Luis Potosi, against the capital. City of Mexico, another force was gathered and landed at Vera Cruz, on the Gulf, under command of General Winfield Scott, March 9, 1847. Taylor, at Monterey, was not re-enforced, but most of his best-trained men joined Scott under orders, leaving Tay- lor with five thousand men, only five hundred of whom had ever been under fire. Scott landed and invested Vera Cruz with a force of about twelve thousand, while Taylor was left facing the strongest Mexican army in the field under General Santa Ana of not less than twenty thousand. While holding Montere}'', about two hundred miles south- west from Matamora, his base had been advanced to Sal- tillo, one hundred miles further; and he was preparing for an advance on San Luis Potosi when more than half of his best-trained troops were ordered to join Scott. Taylor, however, was doing the very best he could with the small force left him. He marched out of Saltillo a few miles to Buena Vista, a mountain pass, on the 22d of February, 1847, when Santa Ana, with his best-equipped THE MEN OF II IS TIME. 291 army, attacked the Americans. The battle fought there on the 22d and 23d was the severest and most desperately- contested engagement of the war. Five thousand half- trained Americans defeated over four times their number in that bloody little valley, less than a half mile wide, and held possession of the iield and the territory, making it one of the really great achievements in war. The American loss was heavy: seven hundred and forty- six killed and wounded, among them Colonel Henry Clay, Jr., son of the chief Whig leader, and Colonel Hardin, of Illinois, who has been mentioned as the Whig member of Congress elected from the Springfield District. The Mex- ican loss was heavy. Over two thousand were killed and wounded. Several hundred prisoners and great quantities of arms, including several field-guns, and large military sup- plies, were captured. This was the concluding victory in northeast Mexico. Taylor remained in possession of all the territory he had taken until the close of the war. On the 9th of March, 1847, General Scott invested the city and fortifications of Vera Cruz with his force of about twelve thousand. On the 26th, the castle of San Juan capitulated, and on the 29th the garrison of five thousand, with forts, equipments, arms, and all their supplies, sur- rendered. On the 8th of April he marched westward into the elevated mountain country, on the celebrated campaign which ended in the capture and capitulation of Jalapa on the 19th, Puebla on May 15th, and on the 10th of August he M^as confronting the City of Mexico. Besides skirmishing and lesser engagements all the way, Scott's American army fought the battles of Cerro Gordo, on April 19th; Contrer'as and Churubusco, on August 10th and 12th; Chapultepec, on September 8th and 13th, and the City of ]\Texico on the 14th. After the storming and capture of the latter, the Americans marched into and oc- cupied the capital city with an effective force of less than 292 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. five thousand. The American loss in killed and wounded on the campaign was 2,703, of which 383 were olhcers and 2,320 were enlisted men, in a force of 10,000 — one out of every three in action. No American campaigns, outside of our own country, have ever equaled those of Taylor and Scott in Mexico. General James Shields was severely wounded at Cerro Gordo, where a grapeshot passed through his right lung, from which he recovered, showing the remarkable vitality of the man; for of those so wounded in battle few indeed survive. Xo nation since the dawning of history ever passed through more rapid, widespreading, continent-embracing, important, wonderful, and bewildering changes, or more startling and unexpected ones, or ever entered a field of such transcending development, as the United States did by and in consequence of the war with Mexico. The writer was young, but remembers well what the able leaders of the day of all parties held as results that would inevitably come to us ; but after Webster, Calhoun, Clay, Benton, Cass, Douglas, Baker, Shields, Yates, and Lincoln, and a thou- sand others, had said all in their power, with the strength and fervor of the great men they were, we have lived to see it all surpassed a hundred-fold in astonishing achieve- ments, with more of reality and progress than the wildest fantasies of their most buoyant hopes and ambitions. There was no territorial need for Texas, except for the extension of slavery, which it Avas schemed to effect, and was surely and certainly done with this object in view; for the slavery-propagandists had entire control. In their plan territory was needed, not for the actiial wants of their sys- tem at the time, but to even up and hold the balance of power over the free States and their people, who were so rapidly advancing into free territory with their free insti- tutions, and building powerful free States to the great West THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 293 and Northwest. Thus they designed to keep their system apace with the advance of freedom and ahead of it, if they could. Neither the Mexican people nor their Government had given cause or provocation for the war of slavery extension against them; but actual war makes cause, and when the Americans were fighting for life and the Texas territory or nation, the great heart and sympathy of kindred people went out to them. With few exceptions, the fellow-feeling and helpful sentiment prevailed, without regard to slavery. When American blood was so freely shed at Goliad, the Alamo, and San Jacinto, there came the rugged determina- tion that our heroic brethren should be sustained as well in Texas as in the great Northwest Dakotas; and as the territory was contiguous, it should be a friendly new nation, or be annexed, as its brave defenders desired. Thus the war came and was fought to surprising victory in the few months of 1846-47. The Americans under Tay- lor and Scott won the conflict with more positive victory and renowned heroism of armies of five and ten thousand against a nation of several millions than the capture of half a continent by Cortez in the sixteenth century. When the Mexican nation was taken captive in the au- tumn of 1847, it was disclosed to our soldiers and soldier statesmen — such as Doniphan, Bonneville, and Fremont — that the Mexicans held territorial right and control, includ- ing Northwest Texas, of an immense region, almost unpopu- lated by Mexicans, Spaniards, or others than Indians, larger than that held in their Eepublic of States builded somewhat on our system. This vast region, from the Sabine River, and the east of Texas, along the Gulf and the thirty to thirty- second parallels of latitude to the Pacific Ocean — over fifteen hundred miles — thence northwestward up the Pacific coast- line the full length of the California coast-line of over eight hundred miles, to the south line of Oregon — altogether about 294 ABRAH.UI LINCOLN. twenty-five hundred miles coast and territorial lines — was taken and added on our south and western frontiers, in- cluding an extended domain of over six hundred and thirty thousand square miles. Territory was added out of which have been constituted the States of Texas, California, Xevada, Colorado (in chief part), and Utah and the Territories of ISTew Mexico and Arizona — an vmknown and unbounded region at the time — out of which ten such States, equal in area to Illinois and Missouri, could be made, with agricultural and grazing lands equal to any two nations of Southern Europe, with a ma- jestic line of lofty dividing mountains, resplendent in porphyry, granite, and alabaster. These vast mountain ranges were riven and seamed with volcanic projection of metals and quartz in such unending and squandering extravagance that the visions of Haroun Al Easchid were only an idle tale, where wealth was revealed and taken out by the hundred millions, in the bosom of these basaltic rocks. The fabled wealth of the Indies was nothing in comparison with these golden treasures, with- out beginning or end, that had, for centuries, been sought by the famishing and perishing Spaniards who explored the wastes of burning sand and volcanic rocks that lay in such abundance beneath their blistered feet. These were all now surrendered to the Americans. Thus the war ended as it was planned and projected until its compensations awak- ened a new era that the slave-extensionists did not antici- pate when they inaugurated it, to conquer and acquire the great domain. Providence had opened the way for the be- ginning of the end of slavery. The Mexicans cared so little for the great territory that they ceded it to us when it was negotiated for, valuing it no more than the debris and waste of the continent. Such an extension of free institutions and free States followed that the wreck and ruin of slavery at once began. This great THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 295 region was opened to freedom, forming a roadway of free States in a continuous belt jutting each other, from the roughly-named Hell Gate on the Atlantic to the Golden Gate on the placid waters of the Pacific. The slavery-leaders wanted Texas, and planned to make five slave States out of it, as an overweight in the balance of political power. They had barely got one out of it when the greater free State of California came with it in the same territorial gift or surrender. Before the treaty was ratified, and while our army of occupation was making posts along the Pacific coast to institute and preserve orderly Government, gold — red and yellow gold, almost in heaps — was discovered in "Sutter's Mill-race." The conquest had brought us and opened up the moun- tains and the plains from the Missouri to the western coast. Afterwards the whole region was free to the treasure-seeker and gold-hunter; and before the Abolitionists had enter- tained the thought, the keen wits and never-failing percep- tions of the slave-leaders discovered that the slave-exten- sion movement to the Pacific would end with Texas; for in a mining region full of rare and valuable metals and daring, adventurous men, slaves — men as property — would be as certain to find freedom as a hungry man would find his dinner in a well-filled storehouse or a bird would find the leafy shade of the forest. Before the war was over, the careful and precise leader, Calhoun, had seen the drift that the war and its acquisitions of territory would lead to. He contemplated and even be- gan to work out a change in their management; but he was too late. He attacked President Polk, whom he had labored so long and so zealously to nominate and elect. He wanted Texas, but did not want the "barren extension of mountains;" but his party had drifted too far, and carried the country altogether beyond any kind of retraction or restriction of boundaries. 296 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The grand, open sweep of territory to the Pacific Ocean, the greatest body of peaceful, quiet-rolling waters under the sun, was ours beyond reversal by the slave -power or any one else. The slave extension thitherward w^as beaten, but its projectors sought another remedy. If they could not surround freedom, they could turn, in their chagrin and wrath, and gnaw at its center, and extend their system along the rich lands of the Missouri Valley, or, in defeat of that purpose, divide the Nation, and secede. In this way, out of their defeat towards the Pacific, they changed their plan of action, as might be said, under fire, and made their last desperate assault on free institu- tions and free States and free labor in the intense work of their propaganda to plant slavery in Kansas and Nebraska. In the contrarieties and superior blundering nothing equaled that of arresting General Taylor in his progress. After he had won a great victory — the most stubbornly-contested and decisive of the war, fighting with untrained troops, with five armed Mexicans against every one he had — he was still not sustained or re-enforced, as was to be expected. Even if General Scott should move the main army against the capital, it would have been wise to re-enforce Taylor with troops sufficient to sustain him in a campaign that, from the be- ginning, lacked nothing for success except a heavier force. This could have been given him if the campaigns had been carried on expeditiously; for there were men enough in service to have sent each of them a force of twelve thousand. Jealousy was a pervading passion then, and shortened men's wits and vision, very much as it has done since, verifying Solomon's observation that "there is nothing new under the sun," certainly not in human constitution or the ambi- tion and selfishness of generals and military men generally. Scott, although a brave, experienced, and capable soldier, was topheavy in his vanities, militarism, tinsel, lace, and feathers. His plans of army organization and discipline THE MEN OF JUS TIME. 297 were strictly along the lines of caste, with all the goodness and the best chances at the top. General Taylor was in every way the antithesis of this haughty, gorgeous, tactical head of our army. He was a plain, sensible American, brave, alert, and active in his line of duty all the time, with the ''at-once" faculty in action. He was a man at home with his men, a soldier in every sense, well-named "Kough-and-Eeady;" for in the West hard frontier and Indian campaigning it was rough if it was any- thing, and the man who was not always ready would soon pass out of it in some way. He was a soldier, victor in war, with nothing of Scott or Scottism about him. Nevertheless the people believed in him, if Scott and his tacticians did not. They took up his cause as their own, and promoted him to be President, to which office he was nominated and elected in November, 1848, and inaugurated March 4, 1849. There can be no doubt that a greater than any human power was leading the Republic, using the passions and am- bitions of men to their path or destiny. The South, by its slave-extending leaders, inaugurated the war to project their system into Texas, and acquire that territory, with its re- sultant political make-weights; but the "Higher Power" made the Republic the generous gift of more free territory than had been planned for slavery, with the further gift of inexhaust- ible precious ores, that, in the condition of things, would aid in preserving free institutions, and prevent the spread of slavery. In their eager zeal for extension, the leaders of the South fired the mine that would crumble and burn out the wrong in its frightful conflagration. After helping to elect Baker and Hardin, Lincoln held the field without opposition, and was elected representative of his district in Congress, November, 1846. He was elected by a majoritv of 1,511 against Clay's majority in the dis- trict of 914 in 1844. This vote shows something of his wonderful hold on the people, especially when we rcmem- 298 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ber that the war was in progress, that people in all parties sympathized with the Texans in their struggle, and that Lincoln, as a candidate, was opposed to the war. In ad- dition, Peter Cartwright, the highly-esteemed pioneer reviv- alist of the West, a man well and favorably known by every person in the district, was his opponent. Cartwright was a Methodist preacher, and had been one from his boyhood. He came to Illinois in its early settle- ment, from Tennessee and Kentucky, He was then about sixty years of age, in full, vigorous manhood. He was a famous man, and lived and preached until over eighty years of age. He was a great power for good, and as great against evil, and so popular with the people that no one but Lincoln could have defeated him in that Democratic district. He was a plain-spoken, daring man, who carried con- viction to the hearts of the people in the commonest and plainest words of our language, in which he showed sense and ability; for without doubt the people of his day, not only in the West, but all over the Nation, where somewhat unlearned, and liked plain utterance. An unquestionable evidence of his power and his commanding spirit is told in the fact that he preached and ministered to the same people in Central Illinois for more than forty years with increasing interest, and that in the last years of a well-spent life he had more calls upon him than he could possibly attend to. He was an eccentric, rugged-spoken, persevering, and determined man, who had something of vanity in his un- polished assaults on all forms of wickedness, and was so much given to powerful expressions, unhesitating exposures of wrong in high or low places, and so accustomed to suc- cess, that when rowdies, brawlers, or disturbers of the peace interfered, or attempted to interfere, in the progress of hi;? meetings, which they attempted a few times, he would walk into their midst, and in his way pound sense into their re- bellious souls. He would lay a number of them flat on their THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 299 backs by the use of his tremendous strength and muscular power, and then reason with them as a peace-and-order maker, exhorting them to amend their ways, in which ca- pacity he more resembled Lincoln than any other man in the district. Though the reverened Peter did such things to the great good and orderly well-being of his people, it is not for these that he chiefly deserves respectful mention, but for the greater good and help that his ceaseless work and labor brought to increasing thousands every year of his long and faithful ministry. He was a helper in deed and in fact in the cabins and dwellings of the poor and lowly. If they were needing something to live upon, to wear, or to shelter themselves, he became at once a busy man until their wants were supplied as far as it was in his power. In his "circuit riding" it was not uncommon for this good disciple to take a bag of cornmeal, or shoes, or clothing to some distressed famil}^ and leave it with them, with the prayers that had the heart of the man in them. It is pleasant and delightful to remember the rugged, kind, holy man, who was always doing his Master's work, and was ready for a hand-to-hand fight with the devil any time. His work was heroic and daring, and remains in the bettered people and happy homes of the thousands in the region where he labored so faithfully, and so to other thou- sands who have spread over the West and followed the set- ting sun. In his ministerial life of almost seventy years, he received into the Church and baptized over twelve thou- sand persons and delivered over fifteen thousand sermons, discourses, and addresses so well and effectively that the same people were never tired of hearing him, and would have willingly listened to as many more if he could have preached them. There could be no possible doubt of the character, capacity, and ability of such a man. This was the man whom the Democrats selected to run 300 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. against Lincoln for Congress. Those who are of opinion that either of them had an easy task are not well informed as to the capacities of these two unequaled orators and men, strong with the people because they were of them. The con- test appeared so close from the beginning that they were not only required to canvass the entire district and make ad- dresses in almost every voting precinct in the several coun- ties, but both of them being personally acquainted with almost every voter part of their work was to see and talk with as many of them as possible in every neighborhood. Cartwright was a Jackson Democrat, and Lincoln a Whig. Each took the close-voting party with him, but there was a large number of independent voters those days. Especially was this true in the Springfield district, where so many Democrats had supported Lincoln in the capital removal. These independents were sought out and reasoned with, by both candidates and their friends. The larger body of them turned to Lincoln, but without discredit to Cartwright, fully believing him to be the most competent and suitable man for the place. Governor Reynolds, the sturdy old Democrat, in speak- ing of the contest long afterwards, said: "Lincoln's election by the large majority he received was the finest compliment personally and the highest political indorsement any man could expect, and such as T have never seen surpassed. There were hundreds of Democrats supporting Lincoln who were positively in favor of the war, and knowing, too, that he was as sincerely opposed to it and more pronounced against it than any man in the State. It was not any discredit to Cartwright, whose standing was as good as, or better, than before his defeat. It was the deliberate opinion of the great body of doubtful voters that Lincoln was the man for the place at the time." Under the apportionment following the census of 1840, Illinois became entitled to a member of Congress at large. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 301 Douglas was elected to this place first in 1843 to fill a vacancy, then again in 1844, and again in 1846, so that in the latter year he and Mr. Lincoln were elected to the same Congress. Before taking his seat, however, in that Thirtieth Congress he was elected to the Senate for the first time, March 4, 1847, which office he held continuously until his death in 1861, being re-elected in 1853, and again after the famous campaign with Lincoln, in 1859. The course of these men's lives ran closely together for more than twenty-five years. In the whole period they were political adversaries. If there were nothing more than coin- cidences in their continued leadership and opposition, it better prepared them for the exercise of high power and influence than if they had agreed and not discussed the greater issues of the time. Their earnest disputes fitted them for the higher and better knowledge of their country and its civil affairs. In all matters not strictly partisan they were united from their first acquaintance at Vandalia. With this respect and friendship between them, and Douglas hav- ing had almost four years' acquaintance with men of all parties at Washington, where he was well known and highly respected, with the experience that the work had given him, he was able to be of infinite value to Mr. Lincoln, a new member, Avhen they met at the Capital in the fall of 1847. Judge Douglas did in this all and more than Mr. Lin- coln expected of him, but no more than Lincoln would have done for him, had their relations been reversed. Douglas was an untiring, energetic man in all the work of his life. Having then the knowledge and the opportunity, he busied himself about it, and in a few weeks gave Lincoln introduc- tion and standing at the Capital with men and leaders of all parties at once, such as he could not have attained with- out it in one entire Congress. Lincoln knew of and appre- ciated this advantage, by which he became well-known and one of the most prominent members at the beginning of his 302 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. term, in part by reason of this friendly help and indorsement of Douglas. By this and his own capable and winning ways he was soon a recognized leader on his side of the House. He was placed on two important committees — on Post Eoads, and Expenditures of the War Department. The last was the most important, because of the large amounts carried in the appropriation bills for the prosecution of the war with Mexico, then in progress. Although he was in opposition, he took early and positive part in favor of prompt and lib- eral support of our armies in the field. He believed that however questionable the war was in the beginning, the necessities of our volunteers should not be neglected, and that the Administration should be given all the forces, means, and supplies needed to bring the war to a successful and speedy conclusion. On the assembling of the Thirtieth Congress, in Decem- ber, 1847, it was soon disclosed that, although Polk had been elected on the strength of his annexation policy in 1844, the opposition had carried the House of Representatives by a small majority in 1846. Shortly after the assembling, Eobert C. Winthrop, a Massachusetts Whig, was elected Speaker. Polk's policy of provoking hostilities by advanc- ing into Mexican territory was not sustained in the North, and as related, the slave-leaders, seeing the scope of Mexican territory that was about to be taken, without serious objec- tion of Mexico, along with Texas, in their dilemma and confusion were the first to call a halt and blame Polk, who they held should have pursued a defensive policy, which would have held Texas, and that alone. Shortly after organization, the House passed a resolu- tion offered by George Ashmun, a Wliig member from Massa- chusetts, by more than a party majority, declaring that "The war had been unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President," which was the severest reprimand THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 303 ever administered to any President by either House of Con- gress up to that time. This was done without much oppo- sition by those who did not vote the censure, because Polk had claimed that the former Congress had virtually indorsed his action, in permitting the passage of an amendment to an appropriation bill, which declared, "That war exists by the act of Mexico." It was a serious mistake for Congress to allow the passage of such a declaration. The appropriation bill was caught in the closing hours of Congress, when this rider was put on it and carried through, because there was not time to separate the stump speech resolution in due par- liamentary fashion and defeat it. It had to be suffered on the appropriation because the pay of the armies in the field would be delayed unless agreed to, and passed in the closing hours of the session. This was all planned by Polk's Administration and the slave coterie, when in consequence of this hostile act the war was inaugurated by our invasion of the Eio Grande territory. The Texans had never claimed boundary farther west than the Neuces Eiver, as much as one hundred miles east of the Eio Grande. Under such circumstances the resolution of censure passed the House of Eepresentatives. Mr. Lincoln earnestly supported the resolution. Before the close of the session, in the midst of dodging statesmen, sophistries, and pretensions in every form of speech and address at the Capital and throughout the land, by reflections of catechising constituents he was wrought up to the work of making one of his most fearless and com- pact statements concerning the war. It was a model of forceful expression, perfect knowledge of his subject, can- did relation and the independence of the man, who was never in the middle, but on one side or other of every public question. He said: "As General Taylor is par excellence the hero of the Mexican War, and as you Democrats say the Whigs have 304 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. always opposed the war, we think it must be very awkward and embarrassing for us to go for General Taylor, The declaration that we have always opposed the war is true or false accordingly as one may understand the terms, 'oppos- ing the war.' If to say 'the war was unnecessary and un- constitutionally begun by the President' be opposing the war, then'the Whigs have very generally opposed it. When- ever they have spoken at all they have said this, and they have said it on what appeared good reason to them; the marching of an army into a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the inhabitants away and leaving their growing crops and other property to destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amicable, peaceful, unprovoking procedure; but it does not appear so to us. To call such an act peaceful, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent absurdity, and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when the war had begun and had become the cause of the country, the giving of our money and blood in common with yours was support of the war, then it is not true that we have always opposed the war. "With few individual exceptions you have constantly had our votes here for all the necessary supplies. And more than this, you have had the services, the blood, and the lives of our political brethren on every field. The beardless boy and the mature man, the humble and the distinguished, you have had them. Through suffering and death, by disease and in battle, they have endured and fought and fallen with you. Clay and Webster each gave a son, never to be re- turned. "From the State of my own residence, besides other worthy but less known Whig names, we sent Marshall, Mor- rison, Baker, and Hardin. They all fought and one fell, and in the fall of that one we lost our best Whig man. E"or were the Whigs few in number or laggard in the day of battle. In that fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 305 Vista, where each man's hard task was to beat back five foes or die himself, of the five high officers who perished, four were Whigs." Later, as he became more familiar with the course of business and the rules of conducting debate, he introduced a series of resolutions on the subject of the war, its cause and beginning, at which time he delivered one of the clearest and most forcible addresses ever made on the subject of the Mexican War. The resolutions were: "Resolved by the House of Eepresentatives, That the President of the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House, "First, Whether the spot on which the blood of our citi- zens was shed, as in his message declared, was or was not ■w-ithin the territory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819 until the Mexican revolution. "Second, Whether that spot is or is not within the terri- tory which was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Government of Mexico. "Third, Whether that spot is not within a settlement of people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the United States army. "Fourth, Whether that settlement is not isolated from any and all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the south and west, and by wide, uninhabited regions in the north and east. "Fifth, Whether the people of that settlement, or a ma- jority of them, or any of them, have ever submitted them- selves to the Government or laws of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by compulsion, either by accepting office or voting at elections, or paying taxes, or serving on juries, or having process served upon them, or in any other way. 20 306 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "Sixth, Whether the people of that settlement did or did not flee from the approach of the United States army, leav- ing unprotected their homes and growing crops, before the blood was shed as in the messages stated, and whether the first blood so shed was, or was not, shed within the inclosure of one of the people who had thus fled from it. "Seventh, Whether our citizens whose blood was shed, as in his message declared, were or were not at that time armed officers and soldiers sent into that settlement by the military order of the President through the Secretary of War. "Eighth, Whether the military force of the United States was, or was not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more than once intimated to the War Department, that in his opinion no such movement was necessary for the defense or the protection of Texas." In these allegations and the inquiries and the short speech which he made in the House not long before, we have a compact and concise account of the manner in which the war was begun, and the relation of parties and individ- uals to it. The last inquiries, it will be observed, are drawn up with all the care of comprehensive inquisition as to boundaries, dates, course, and character of action, forces, and their action, and individuals and their action, and all facts and circumstances such as would underlie the forward movement in any well-laid cause in court or council or a statesman's exact definition of it. In this can be seen the manner and habit of the man in the control and conduct of any cause or subject under his direction. When his cause was made up, no material fact or statement was lacking, neither was there surplusage or attempt at concealment or mystification. The statements were as plain and simple as the plainest language in common use would make them. All the facts bearing on the subject or any phase of it were always care- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 307 fully related, those bearing against him or his cause being as fairly given as those in his favor. Hence he became known as an honest, tireless pleader at the bar, who did not desire the care and management of actions or suits at law where the rights of his clients or the righteousness of his cause rested on any sort of doubt, nor was he ever known in his political or public career to undertake the defense or support of any principle, benefit, or line of action that was not based upon absolute right and justice as he understood it. Notwithstanding his favorable introduction and approved leadership in his party, and his rapid and unusual advance- ment to recognition and conceded leadership on the floor of the House, he was unsatisfied with his position as a rep- resentative long before his term had expired. There were several reasons that led him to this conclusion ; a preponder- ating one was that the pay and emoluments were wholly in- adequate for the support of a man in his condition and circumstances of life. The pay of a representative was eight dollars a day, a sum which was very little above what was needed for board-bill and other necessary expenses at the Capital. There was a time not long after the opening of his first session when he would have consented to a renomination. Writing to his partner, Mr. Herndon, about it, he said: "It is very pleasant for me to learn from you that there are some who desire that I should be re-elected. I most heartily thank you for their kind partiality; and I can say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas, that I would not object to a re-election, although I thought at the time of my nomina- tion, and still think, it would be quite as well for me to return to the law at the end of a single term. I made the declaration that I would not be a candidate again more from a wish to deal fairly with others, to keep peace among our friends, and keep the district from going to the Demo- crats, than for any cause personal to myself; so that if it 308 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. should so happen that nobody else wishes to he elected, I could not refuse the people the right of sending me again; but to enter myself a competitor of others, or authorize any one so to enter me, is what my word and honor forbid." This was his most favorable consideration of the subject; but long before the end of his term he had given up all thought of re-election, and heartily united with others in making Judge Logan the candidate, who was defeated, a result which Lincoln regretted as much as, if not more than, Logan. Lincoln might have carried his district again, but it was then a close one, and a great many Whigs and a larger number of independent Democrats who had supported him were criticising him or any Wliig who questioned the con- duct of the war or the acquisition of the large territory quite severely, which even his Whig law partner, Mr. Hern- don, did. The war had become popular, and it was only Whigs with a record of military service who possessed availability as candidates. In this condition of political feeling it was well that Lincoln was not a candidate. The one considera- tion that would have induced him to undertake it would have been the belief that no other Whig could be elected in the district. Although Taylor was elected in 1848, the State of Illinois was becoming more surely Democratic, owing, no doubt, to the large number of emigrants it was receiving from Tennessee and Kentucky, the most of whom were less opposed to slavery than those they denounced as Abolitionists in all parties. It was no particular disappoint- ment to Logan that he was defeated; but if it had hap- pened to Mr. Lincoln it might have changed the whole course of his life, and it was not to be. His mind was pretty well made up on the subject early in the term, when he wrote Mr. Speed that "Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected." THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 309 This was his real feeling from the beginning to the end of the term. His own conclusions seemed to have been always right as to his conduct and occupation. In this he was particularly right, with the future before him, which neither himself nor any one about him realized in any sense. What it would be in comparison with what it proved to be, it would have been an irremediable mistake in many ways for him to have remained in Congress, which, so far as the nomination ^vas concerned, he could easily have accom- plished. Much likely would have occurred to distract and remove him far away from the field where his herculean labor was a necessity, to build the coming party that would tackle slavery without fear or reserve. Above all, for the career that was before him, did he need the six years for thought, the closest study and application of his life, to fit him for the more than human undertaking that lay before him, and which he seemed to be preparing himself for in every way that he could, guided either by a deep, instinctive feel- ing, or inspiration. As early as July, 1848, Lincoln gave up all hope of seeing his favorite leader, Henr}^ Clay, elected President, though a great many Whigs were so firmly held to him by his amiable, gracious ways and his wonderful capacities to lead, that he received over one-third of the votes in the Convention which nominated General Taylor for Presi- dent, and Millard Fillmore, a lawyer, of Buffalo, New York, for Vice-President. Before the long session of Congress was over, Lincoln had indulged in some of the speech-making in the House, and had arraigned the Democratic party on its war policy and its record, which had provoked hostilities wantonly and without cause. When the war was over, they claimed the credit of its great success and the valuable acquisition of territory as due to them alone. This was presumptuous 310 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. . beyond measure, when truthfully considered; for, as be- fore remarked, Scott and Taylor, the successful captains, were Whigs; no prominent Democrats had been con- spicuous as leaders; and of the volunteer officers and sol- diers, thousands of them — perhaps more than half — were Whigs. It was in bad taste, as it always has been, to set up any line of party division in our volunteer armies; for when any war becomes the cause of the people, which the Mex- ican War did, party divisions are set aside at once. The American people make it the cause of the Nation, as people have done the world over; and the party claiming exclusive right to patriotic service and the only "loyal belief" is usu- ally severely punished or neglected for its impertinent pre- tensions. CHAPTER XIV. ME. LINCOLN had grown to be not only an able de- bater in courts and Congress in 1848, but one of the most entertaining speakers in the country. In proof of this there were two or three places wanting him in his own State for every one he could fill because of his con- spicuous reputation as one of the most effective and pleas- ing orators in the House. He accepted the invitation for a two-weeks' canvass of New England before returning home after the adjournment; consequently, in September, he made several addresses in Boston, Worcester, Hartford, New Haven, Providence, Dorchester, Springfield, and, on his way home, at Albany, New York, where he met Thurlow Weed for the first time. His audiences were delighted with him. In that coun- try with just claims to high cultivation and education, and full of able and eminent men, from Webster down to Franklin Pierce, he held his high distinction as one of the clearest and most convincing speakers and reasoners they had ever heard. There was not a single town in which he spoke that would not have doubled his audience for a second speech; and not a single complaint about want of knowledge, learning, or force was ever heard. This is mentioned here because, later in life, there came men and journals out of this same New England who af- fected to speak or write of him as a backwoods lawyer and an unlettered man, whereas, in the day when they had real statesmen in their section, Lincoln was held to be their peer, and proved it on their native heath. Lincoln 311 312 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, had plain ideas and beliefs about the rights of men and sincere sympathy for the oppressed in every condition of life, snch as New England and caste-ridden and college- trained England is endeavoring to wash out of the memory of men, so as to stuff the minds of their factory-cursed operatives with the benefits of usury, property, investment, business, commerce, and gold as of more value than any mere right of man. Mr. Lincoln, in his lifetime, did not need, nor ever de- sired such to support or believe in him, nor their commis- eration; but those who affect to regret his untutored mind are scarcely in such pitiable plight as the wealth and class- breeding projectors who devoutly assume to honor and fol- low him, while planting, building, and fastening all the diabolical, labor-robbing, and oppressing systems of Europe upon us. It is common knowledge that in life at home, in courts. Congress, councils, or the highest exercise of power ever permitted in the land, he was invariably on the side of the "common people" and the plainest, poorest, and most oppressed among them. If now living, he would not be boasting the great achievements and aggregations of cap- ital, but would be in line alongside the toiler, as he was on the side of the slave and the struggling j^ioneer. The annexation of Texas and the purchase and cession of the territory heretofore described reopened the slavery question more emphatically and with more determination -on the part of contending partisans of slavery and freedom than any event in our history. Both parties had strong convictions, and when the proposition was made to author- ize the President to use a large sum of money virtually for the purpose of acquiring the territory, the contest opened which would only end in the positive triumph and unques- tionable victory of one or the other. The organized slave power of the South, then under TEE 2LEN OF HIS TIME. 313 Calhoun, in his age, and the organizing bodies of anti-slav- ery people in the North in various degrees of unity, coher- ence, and purposes, entered fearlessly into the discussion of all questions, and especially then into one so public, wide- spreading and ruinous to our institutions as slavery. When the appropriation of two million dollars for the purpose of territorial expansion was agreed to in the House of Eepresentatives on August 8, 1846, David Wilmot, a sturdy Democrat, of Pennsylvania, offered an amendment, in the form of a proviso, that neither slavery nor involun- tary servitude should be permitted in *any of the territory so acquired. This was agreed to, and the resolution was passed, with this condition annexed. In the Senate the appropriation was taken up in the closing hours of the session, and defeated in discussion, without coming to a vote. This discussion opened the whole question, which was taken up slowly in the beginning, but gathering strength year after year, until, 1854-55-56, it took definite form in the organization of the Republican party on the basis of the Wilmot proviso, and determined resistance to the spread of slavery into any new territory. The actual dispute was renewed in the next Congress, after Taylor's election, when ten millions were appropriated and used for the purchase of the territory, without the restrictive clause. The Whigs had elected General Taylor. Nevertheless the party was nearing dissolution because of its want of integrity to ad- here to its long-professed antagonism to slavery. Those controlling the Administration, who, above all other things, desired to avoid a division on the question, discovered that the Mexican people, more advanced than our own Republic at the time, much as we believed in our superior civilization, had abolished slavery in every part of their territory; consequently our acquisition from them was free territory, and would require the passage of some 314 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. positive act to make any part of it a slave State or Terri- tory. This was the solution at the time. It was in no way a settlement, but was merely a delay of the coming conflict. Mr. Lincoln earnestly supported the proviso, and as he never hesitated about his beliefs or declaring them, he an- nounced himself as positively opposed to the extension of slavery into any new territory, which had virtually been his position on the annexation of Texas. He not only declared himself opposed to any form of extension, but took up the question of slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia in a practical way. His plan was to accomplish the abolition of slavery in the District and the arrest of the inhuman traffic by the agree- ment of all parties concerned, awarding a reasonable com- pensation to the slaveholders for the men and women manumitted under the plan. It was his opinion that Con- gress had full and undisputed authority over the District and the Territories. Therefore, being a representative, with rights and authority equal to any one, he set about devising a plan, in earnest to carry out his belief that slavery was wrong, and to provide a system of legislation for its extinc- tion wherever the United States held undisputed authority, outside of State control. He was not led to this solution as a sudden or partial conclusion. He learned that the slaveholders held from the beginning that slavery was an inherited condition, and that the ownership of men and women had been so long recognized as part of our civil and social fabric, and so interwoven in its relations to property, industries, and val- ues as to be entirely beyond their control, except the right to liberate their own slaves in some States of the South. Beyond this the common belief was that thousands oi able and wise men in the slave States, slaveholders, but, above all, patriots, many of whom had given their lives to our THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 315 country as proof of it, were hoping that some system of wise and gradual emancipation would finally be adopted. The idea prevailed so generally up to the admission of Missouri that it was believed to be the accepted solution, and that, in some way, a legislative plan would be agreed on that would effect emancipation, with limited compen- sation to the owners in money or lands. This was the plan of the framers of the Constitution — Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and thousands like them — many of whom did as some of these did, who freed their slaves. It was Clay's belief and the avowed belief of the framers of the Kentucky Constitution — the first State admitted — and up to 1820 it was the avowed belief of the Whig party, with no declared opposition to it in any other party. Continued examples of the sincerity of the belief were frequently af- forded, as thousands of slaves were manumitted. Thus, after a laborious study for almost his full terra in Congress and patient consideration of the subject as he believed it to be his right and duty, Mr. Lincoln deliberately planned to put in force his own belief in the most sensible way that had been suggested. In full accord with the beliefs of the wisest and best of citizens, soldiers, and statesmen who framed our institutions and system of law, he took hold of the slave question at his first opportunity. Let this be remembered, that, to put the plan in successful operation and preserve a consistent policy in accord with professed beliefs, he presented it, through Colonel W. W. Seaton, mayor of Washington City, to the slaveholders of the Dis- trict. They, in the beginning, looked upon it favorably, and agreed on the details providing for proper time-limits, manumission, and compensation. He proceeded so far as to move in the House, on several days — January 8, 9, and 11, 1849 — to take up the resolution of Mr. Gott, of Ohio, prohibiting the slave-trade in the District, at the same time offering his plan for the abolition of slavery in the District 316 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. as an amendment. This he did, and for the time it was as far as any real slavery-extinguisher could get in our land of freedom. Thousands had for years believed, and other thousands had affected to believe, that such a plan for the extinction of slavery should be agreed on and passed, when came Lincoln with a formulated agreement in which former beliefs and asseverations could be put to the test. Very much to Mr. Lincoln's enlightenment, and to that of other thousands of anti-slavery people, he learned that the "right of petition," which John Quincy Adams had so valiantly fought for in that House for so many years, was about all that was then left of remedy against slavery, and that when the petitions of the people were read and re- ferred, that was all that was looked for or expected, and that no considerable number of persons in or about Congress ever expected that any legislation restricting slavery would pass or seriousl}^ interfere with the spread of as prosper- ous and profitable an institution as it was then held to be in our Capital City. If Lincoln had gained no greater knowledge than this, it would have rewarded him for all his waiting and toil in getting to Congress, and all his inquiring and persevering energy in this endeavor to get the subject in condition for a practical settlement. Early in life he believed in and followed Mr. Clay in hope of the adoption of some plan of gradual emancipation. After careful and patient in- vestigation and putting in shape what had been so often and so generally agreed to and proposed, he was turned away with careless indifference by Mayor Seaton and his associates, who had been ridiculed by the pro-slavery people and admonished that their city would suffer and that Wash- ington society would languish and decay if they attempted "any interference with the domestic institutions of the South." However, he experienced an ease of mind and re- THE MUN OF HIS TIME. 317 lief when his well-meant proposal met such unceremonious rejection. His work revealed to him the true situation, the strength of the slave-power, and the value of Phari- saical promises by the thousand, delivered on so many cor- ners and other public places. He often told the writer that the experience was of great value to him, and that the move- ment against slavery, as is the case with all other wrongs which men endure, would need to begin and be carried on by the people directly with all their power and strength, and that reforms seldom, if ever, begin with men high in authority. In talking it over afterwards, he said that he felt very much as John A. Logan did on his return from a peace convention at Eichmond in the spring of 1861, when it was known they were mustering troops for resistance in the same town. Logan was young and ambitious, and wanted to make "a last effort anyway." It was understood he had offered them, as a Northern Democrat who very much de- sired peace, a sheet of clear white paper on which to write their terms and the conditions on which they would consent to a peaceful adjustment of the dispute, and remain in the Union. It was known in Washington before Logan's return that he had submitted this proposition in this way to the real leaders of the secession movement. Their reply had not been given before Logan got back. When he returned, an anxious friend asked him, "What was the result of your proposal?" With light, almost a flame, flashing from daz- zling eyes that never shone brighter in all the halos of their glory, the answer was explosive and startling as it rang out in the assembling House of Eepresentatives and the lob- bies to the hundreds of anxious listeners, who hoped much from his visit: "Well I 've brought my blank sheet of paper, and I am ready for war!" The compensatory plan was withdrawn, the mayor and 318 ABB AH AM LINCOLN. his beguiled associates were reprimanded and ordered to let the subject of slaver}^ alone. The episode opened the eyes of the man who was some day to write the audacious wrong and injustice out of existence. There was revealed to him the strength, the complete, compact, and almost perfect organization, the force at command, the accessibility to knowledge and power, and the capacity of trained lead- ers under one single authoritj^ Calhoun, as long as he lived, and under Davis in succession. In gaining this information and experience, and pass- ing through daily repeated proof of what he had thus dis- covered, he came into the fullest possession of the knowl- edge of the facts, and made the personal acquaintance and estimate of the men who held absolute control and manage- ment of the entire subject and system. These to a man of Lincoln's keen perception and perfect understanding gave him the light and knowledge of the subject and of the char- acter and capacities of those in control, such as could not have been gained by him in any other way. He saw the knowl- edge, training, and devotion of these leaders, and realized what was necessary for him or any other leader who con- tended against them. These were a fitting preparation for his coming work, without which he could not have suc- ceeded^ and such as came to no other man or leader. There were a hundred or more men in the Thirtieth Congress along with him who were to become jxistly hon- ored for their patriotism and capable service, many of whom continued in Congress for years; but no one of them got the insight into the system, the knowledge of its strength, resources, and possibilities, in their few or many sessions, that Lincoln did in his two thinking years in Congress. He learned and knew and saw the sophistries of thousands who harangued on plans of gradual emancipation, moral force, competition with free labor, colonization, voluntary manumission, and plans upon plans for the gradual extinc- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 319 tion of slavery, "if the Northern agitators would only leave it alone." While the South, under its strong management and con- trol, led and directed by the brightest, bravest, and most competent men of its section, was pushing ahead with all its powers and energies united, spreading their domestic institution in every direction where it could be taken, and in well-planned movements absorbing the powers and pre- rogatives of the Xation, their opposition was adroitly di- vided into all sorts of disputing factions. He learned that the humane ideas of the. early statesmen of the South, with their oft-repeated purpose of peaceful emancipation, in some Avay had passed away, and that a revolution of sentiment and policy then prevailed, that slavery was immensely prof- itable, and formed the basis of their industrial as well as their social system. He learned that the crops — corn, cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco — cultivated and produced by the unskilled as well as the unpaid labor of the slaves, amounted to astonishing sums annually, rising to hundreds of millions of dollars every year. He learned, too, that sentiment and consideration for the Negro race, as entitled to the rights of men, had given way to the grosser calculations of profit and commercial business; that the whole fabric of Southern society, industry, and progress rested on slave labor; that, aside from any question of right or wrong, as it seemed buttressed in its strength at Washington, it would be an idle task to think of any process being carried out there for the extinction of the evil where all except a few either received tribute or paid it, while the white people of the South were wasting away in idleness and disease in competition with slave-labor. The mild measure presented by Mr. Lincoln provided for the liberation of slaves held and owned by residents of the district, excepting those that belonged to offioers of the Government and citizens of the slave States who brought 320 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. them there while in the public service, and held them for a limited period afterwards. This was intended to include only the household and personal servants of those who were temporarily located there. Next, all children born of slave mothers after January 1, 1850, shall serve a limited appren- ticeship. ISText, the Government is to pay slave-owners full cash value of slaves on appraisement, and liberate them. Next, all fugitive slaves were to be returned to their own- ers. Finally, the act, after its passage by Congress, was to be submitted to the qualified voters of the District, and approved by a majority vote before becoming a law. This was Lincoln's mild measure for the abolition of slavery, which was so promptly suppressed by Calhoun and his lesser leaders. The most independent people of the South, especially those of the less productive regions and the border States, were emigrating from under the direct contention against slavery westward and northwestward by hundreds of thou- sands; but many of these were so overslaughed with the evil influences of the slaveholding regime that by unnum- bered thousands they became more effective helpers of the slave ascendency in the new States than they had been in the slave ones, that drove them out of their homes seek- ing employment. Lincoln learned, much to his sorrow, that the system of which Calhoun vras the head was not a min- iature, small-bounded, weak, and failing domestic institution that was to be extirpated by sentimental assaults, strongly- framed resolutions, or the unanswerable logic of truth and Christian civilization, but that it was one of the strongest and most firmly-rooted evils that the world had ever seen, and that God alone in his wisdom could extirpate. Such means of arraigning slavery before the world as a gigantic evil were all needed, and were put in full operation against it for generations ; but it had to be learned and con- sidered as well, that the evil was sustained by all the power THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 321 and strength of twelve millions of white people. They held almost four millions of black people as slaves, and were consolidated and stronger in their entirety than the same number of people anywhere, excepting only the somewhat larger and stronger body of free people in the free States; but these they expected to overcome and defeat in adroitly- planned political divisions, as they had done continuously from the accession of the Louisiana purchase in 1803. It was of infinite benefit to him to serve those two short years in Congress. With his cause of justice conceded, and the consent of the slaveholders of the District and the border States in part, he could do nothing whatever from the moment that the slave-leaders considered his proposition. It was well that he learned all this from sources of respon- sibility beyond question of doubt. Without all this, he could not have been the leader he was growing to be; but the Master was giving him opportunity, and he became a better- trained but a more melancholy man. With no more success than if he had been presenting petitions and preserving the right so resolutely fought for by Adams, he retired from Congress willingly at the close of his term, with information beyond value to him. He had made no headway against slavery, but he had seen the great leaders and the men about them, and the situation and drift of public afl'airs. Many of these older leaders were in their physical decline, but wise and gifted as ever in knowledge and long experience. He saw something of their history and standing, and some of these came to know him, who was the keenest-witted, most penetrating, and far-seeing man of his time. Clay was there in his age, worn and disappointed and out of humor with the younger men, who were getting ready to make and did make Taylor, and not Clay, the Whig candi- date for President. Webster was there in his ripened age, the one time master and leader, still revered and honored as the expounder of the Constitution. He was then in much 21 322 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. infirmity beyond his years, and almost consumed by the in- satiable ambition to be President. Many of our best men have been infatuated with the same phantasy that bedrag- gled the fame of our great constitutional lawyer, of much higher and more enduring fame than the office would have given him — an office that is bartered and dickered away about three times out of four to the ablest trimmer and straddler of his time. Though "Godlike Webster" pandered for it, he never attained it. Mr. Lincoln saw Thurlow "Weed at Albany, able, fear- less, and outspoken even then on the slavery issue. Weed was the best manager, political turner, wheeler in and wheeler out of conventions, that the country had seen up to his day. He was a man never surpassed in that kind of work until Lincoln's friend Gridley upset him and his can- didate so completely and gTaciously that Weed was brought to Lincoln's support as cheerfully as though lie had been his own choice from the beginning. He met Horace Greeley in Xew York, the most em- phatic and daring in speech and in his newspaper of all the opponents then fighting slavery. He was a modern political wonder, the most audacious and immoderate on any phase of any question he discussed. He was an extremist in everything, and conservative in nothing. He was the most violent antagonist of the Democratic party for some twenty- five years, when suddenly in IS? 2 he became its candidate for President. He was a successful, truly independent jour- nalist for over twenty-four years, and struck slavery more blows, harder and more continuous, than any man in the anti-slavery cause. He honestly built up his newspaper, and held the fortune which came from his own indefatigable labor, until in his wild mistake of being a candidate he was defeated, disappointed, and stricken unto death. His life, his fortune, and his newspaper were taken away from him in a short three months' political campaign. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 323 In Washington, Mr. Lincoln met and became well ac- quainted with Governor William H. Seward, just elected to the Senate from New York, who was to be with him through the most eventful period of the Nation's history. He also made a pleasant acquaintance with the then dis- tinguished Senator Clayton, of Delaware, who was to be President Taylor's Secretary of State, and to shape the memorable treaty that still bears his name. He met General Scott, the greatest General of his time, and better informed than any about him of the extent of the wicked designs of the slave-leaders; but the General was old, testj^, gouty, sore, vain to the highest degree for an American, and almost intolerant of opposition. He was closing a long, brave, and chivalrous career, disappointed that "Taylor, a frontier colonel," was nominated, while he, the military successor of Washington, could be had for the asking. How- ever, after that, time came round with a nomination for the old hero in 1852, when both himself, and the Whig party with him, passed away of too much slavery. Mr. Lincoln met many others in his own party, and made many lasting and valued acquaintances, some being of great help to him in the near future. He also met and made many agreeable acquaintances among the leaders of the slave propaganda, who were at the bottom as deter- mined that the Nation should be all slave as he was that it should be all free. Calhoun was still there, as feeble and infirm of body as Clay, but directing affairs with as keen and unclouded intellect as when he first came to Washing- ton City, forty years before. Jefferson Davis was there, and both having been born within a small distance of each other in Kentucky, their personal greetings and friendship were cordial. Davis was then fresh from the field of Bueiia Vista, where Colonel Hardin, Lincoln's long-time friend, fell almost within sight of Davis, and in respect for his memorv thev talked of him, and took each other's measure. 324 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He met General Lewis Cass, then senator from Mich- igan, who was to be the Democratic candidate against Gen- eral Taylor in 1848, He always afterwards respected and honored the uprightness and rectitude of the man, who lacked only more rigid determination to become a great party leader. He also met Toombs and Stephens, Berrien and Crawford, and many other brilliant and capable South- ern leaders, who were full of the most sanguine hopes and pronounced beliefs in the future of their slave system, Foote, of Mississippi, Avas there, who aspired to succeed Calhoun, who had the venom, but not the sense, to be his successor. Having nothing in his nature so strong as pre- tension and extravagance of speech, he became so common that he won the title of "Hangman Foote," and harmlessly passed out of mind. There were many others at Washing- ton and elsewhere whom he met, a thousand or more, that were to be active and prominent in the great work he was then so unconsciously approaching. He became acquainted with and admired Preston Blair, Sr., who supported Jackson through thick and thin with his newspaper, about the first work of the kind ever undertaken in any Administration, and with his sons, Frank and Montgomery, who became his friends and supporters. He renewed a pleasant acquaintance with Senator Ben- ton, of Missouri, "Old Bullion," as he was known, even then passing from party control, because he knew that slavery was a corrupting and destroying system to free labor, that could end only in national decay and ruin, and was as fear- less in his declarations about it as in any of his opinions. From his own State of Illinois there were with him John Wentworth in the House, and General Shields and Judge Douglas in the Senate, all Democrats, with whom he was on the most friendly terms and in accord on public affairs, save strictly on matters of partisan division. When we make a recast of these distinguished men, some THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 325 of them eminent in their day, and in the judgment of man- kind to remain so, we will certainly conclude that Lincoln had opportunities. With those who favored and those who opposed him alike, it M^as conceded that no one ever took better advantage of the sources of information than he did; hence having been with these leaders under the favorable conditions related, we know well that he returned home with a fund of information and knowledge that was equal, at least, to that of any other man in or out of the Capital. He came home trained and equipped, as those who knew best expected he Avould be, the equal of any man who chose to meet him, as Douglas, who never trifled with unimportant persons, did; and who was then, by all concurrent events and party movements, as near master of our public affairs as it was possible for him to be. It had been said of Douglas, that he shifted and pos- tured and veered his political craft to the wind, and strove almost against fate to evade and survive the inevitable gathering storm. He, of all the leaders in his time, was trounced and cathechised most, for his position on slavery. First, this was brought about by the concealed, but as strong, desire of the pro-slavery cabal to destroy his political influence at all hazards, as being really the most formidable foe in the way of their control of the Government and slavery extension, right or wrong. To have removed him from his leadership would have been, as they knew and be- lieved, almost a crowning victory, for it did not appear that any other leader in the Democratic party could resist their power and retain leadership. Hence in every possible way they insidiously sought his destruction and overthrow. Tn this desire began the persecution of Douglas. Just here, as we have recalled their memory in this long list of able and distinguished leaders, let us remember that no one except Lincoln had a more consistent record on the subject of slavery extension than Judge Douglas. President 326 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Taylor, whom Lincoln heartily supported in 1848, was known to be in accord with Clay and Douglas on the slavery ques- tion, and he recommended, in his messages to Congress, let- ting slavery alone in the Territories, subject only to the action of the people in making their constitutions and pre- paring for admission as States into the Union. This was the same idea of non-intervention as it was held and pre- sented and stoutly defended by Douglas and others at the time and subsequently. As very few did, Douglas did not see as early and clearly as Lincoln that slavery, like all forms of intrenched evil, was to conquer or perish in its battle, not with parties or in them, but with the Nation, should the Nation attempt to restrict or abolish it. Douglas did not realize this in its full meaning until in the closing of his great career, when he came loyally and manfully to the stand that saved Lincoln's Administration, and in so doing saved the blessed Nation of freemen as no other political union and consolidation could have done. But it is true that, earnestly absorbed in the most angered party disputes, he did not foresee the assault in all its horror like many other thousands, until the insurrection was ready. Lincoln's partnership with Logan, which began early in 1841, was fortunate and advantageous to both, perhaps the most so to Lincoln, as it relieved him of a great deal of unpaid services and political work that could be done by others. He gained a remunerative business from the begin- ning, and more firmly settled himself in regular habits, methodical rules of caring for, attending to, and managing the aifairs of the firm. Springfield had grown. The State was growing rapidly, and these men, helping each other in many ways, were sharing the benefit of the wonderful West- ern development. From this time forward he had all the business he could attend to, with fees so moderate for his services that a client THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 327 was seldom known to object. He built his Springfield resi- dence soon after this, not large or showy in any way, but commodious and comfortable, meeting every requirement of the family's plain and simple manner of living. There was a generous hospitality in the Lincoln household that no one ever enjoyed without lasting remembrance of it. Mr. Lincoln and his good wife took care of every one that passed their door, and did it right, so that they remem- bered the entertainment like a visit to the homestead of their kindred. He was so kind, careful, and watchful of every one's com- fort, and so good-natured, never too tired or too busy to help, that their entertainment was never forgotten. Mr. Lincoln could do almost anything about the house. His good stepmother taught him, and he never forgot her les- son. He did not in any sense need to look after the house or the care of it, for Mrs. Lincoln was as competent as she was energetic; but he always helped when he could, and said that he liked to know how. One day he asked the writer, "Can you peel and cook potatoes?" The reply was: "Yes. My mother taught me to do almost anything in and about the house, and, Avhen it has been necessary, I have found it a help and convenience." He continued: "I remember, you have a good Scotch mother. May God give us more mothers who will teach their children how to work! You would scarcely think that a man of my size and awkward- looking movements could do as particular work as peeling small potatoes, but I have done it, and I did it well." This was true, and it is related here to show the general knowl- edge and precision of the man. He had the strength of a giant, and the impressive dig- nit}^ that at once convinced every one of his strength, and the wit and sense of how best to use his combined will and power; but he had the most delicate tact and skill and sense of touch and a propriety about all of it that was at least 328 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. unusual. Hence there was, to those who knew him well, no wonder that he could peel small j)otatoes, and do it well. He was precise, delicate, and particular about all his work. His handwriting and his work as a surveyor, his figures, lines, and drafts of roads, bridges, and streams were models of neatness and orderly care, and this is true of all his- written work that required careful preparation. He repeatedly declined all manner of foreclosure suits or processes at law against farmers or tenants who were strug- gling along to complete paj'ments for their homesteads, or were in distress of one kind or another, to make the scanty living for their families. It is probably true that the largest fee he ever earned and received in a suit at law was for services rendered an Hlinois railway company, to collect which he was compelled to bring suit and collect it under judgment of the court. He was liberal and generous, and, being well known, was occasionally imposed on by some who would rather beg than work, but hardly ever more than once by the same person, for reason that his rebukes and reprimands were so truthfully impressive that the pretender would rather seek honest labor than wince under his wit and irony. He was especially watchful and liberal in the care and educa- tion of his family and those who enjoyed his care and hos- pitable course of living. One who had frequently been a visitor under his roof wrote: "I have many times enjoyed the homelike and old- fashioned hospitality of Springfield, but one of the most cheerful I remember with saddened pleasure was the dinners and small evening parties given by our friends, the Lincolns. In Mrs. Lincoln's pleasant and simple home, where all was so orderly, refined, and entertaining, there was always anxi- ety on the part of both of them, with a cordial and hearty Western welcome, that put their guests and all about them perfectly at ease. Their dinners were famous for their THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 329 abundance, and the old Kentucky dishes, so delicate and appetizing in flavor, were well prepared. They often had venison, turkey, and other game, which was so easy to get that it was always at hand. After all, it was the home sur- roundings, the kind and cordial greetings, the wit, humor, and anecdote, and the hearty good-will of both of them that remain a pleasant and enduring memory." He had so fully established himself as one of the ablest men in the practice of the law, that in April, 1845, not on account of any divergement or want of harmony, but, for reasons which were prudent and satisfactory, they dissolved their pleasant, mutually beneficial partnership, remaining afterwards as constant and good friends in all their relations as they had ever been. In proof of this, no man ever paid higher tribute to the genius, work, and high character of Mr. Lincoln than his tutor and law partner. Judge Logan. From the dissolution of partnership with Stewart in 1841, he was with Logan four years to April, 1845, after which in the following July, he formed a life-lasting partnership with William H. Herndon, then a competent young man of the Springfield bar. Their business plans, ideas, and tem- peraments harmonized, so that there was perfect accord throughout their lives, except on the slavery question, on which Herndon was so saturated with the old Whig con- servative ideas that slavery should be let alone, that Mr. Lincoln pursued his own course independently of Mr. Hern- don's opinions, as of the others with whom he labored throughout that period. The advantage of this was that all extraneous matters were excluded from consideration or discussion in their law office. Mr. Lincoln was away from home much of his time, as his increasing business took him regularly for more than half of the year into the counties of the old Eighth Judicial District. During this absence, Mr. Herndon carried on the Springfield business to the entire satisfaction of both, and 330 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the relation lasted as long as they lived, for there was still unsettled business of the firm after both of them had passed away, and neither of them made any other partnership. It was a pleasant thought to Mr. Lincoln that he would return home and take up the law business just where he left it when he went to Washington City. This was a recom- mendation of the plodding, continuing business care of Mr. Herndon that very few men ever attained. It was during the years from 1845 to 1858, with the two years of service in Congress, that he made such astonish- ing and remarkable advancement in all that there ever was of the man and his achievements. He had gained enduring success in his profession. In his plain way of living he was comfortable, at ease and content, with all his wants for himself and his family supplied and within his reach. He had paid off most of the "old store account debts," in his own language, "My national debt," by 1846, and the very last of it in 1849. Thus he was comfortably situated in life, with every reasonable wish gratified. This seemed in business of money -making all he desired; for if he had taken to the work of amassing money and mak- ing a fortune and getting large properties, so common among the prosperous lawyers about him, he could have done so more, easily than any one of them, for his opportunities were abundant, and never left him. It was not lack of knowledge that led him to this course of life; for had he been so inclined, or heeded the advice of many of them, and one of them in particular, with his opportunities and the aid of this friend, who tried several times to turn him that way, he could have built up a fortune as great as that of any man in his region; but he had neither desire nor in- clination for it, and so emphatically expressed himself to his friends on the subject that they fully appreciated his motives. He held that to do so would distract him and take him away from his highest duty and whatever might THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 331 come of that. His tenacity on this subject was so strong and continuous that it surprised Mr. Gridley very much, who counseled with him until he saw that it was not agree- able. There seems little doubt that he was so strongly impressed with his duty, that nothing would swerve him from his positive line of work as it came to him. We know that he never allowed any kind or character of business to permit the least deviation from it. In human wisdom, as far as we can see, this was surely an inspiration. On Mr. Lincoln's return from Washington as a repre- sentative, his friends noticed that his thoughtfulness, run- ning sometimes into melancholy, had deepened and more firmly settled into his nature. These thoughtful "spells," to which his friends had been so long accustomed, did not occasion uneasiness, but were remarkable instances and proof that he had undertaken some more difficult or perplexing problem for deeper and more profound study. By the ad- vice of some well-informed friends at Springfield, and per- haps others at Washingon who favorably impressed him, he entered a new course of reading and patient, careful stud}^, taking up for it, to begin with, the higher mathematics, logic, political economy, mental and moral philosophy, and standard literature. Thus at about forty years of age he became the most diligent and careful student of what might be called his higher reasonings, of any part of his life. He had reached success, and was at the head of the law profession. He had been two years at the Nation's Capital, full of men with their ideas. He had measured himself with them, and had talked to satisfied and listening thousands as well as he had done in his generally attended Western campaigns. He had can- vassed New England and New York, the seat of colleges, institutions of learning, well-informed and well-educated men, sustained by thousands of admiring friends, who through their lives were faithful and constant. He had 332 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. seen the world of America. He was not dissatisfied with his place among men, but came home satisfied with the advice of some good counsel about him, that with the approval of his own seldom-erring judgment led him to take up the line of reading and closer study that so highly developed his marvelous reasoning and analytical powers. Hence he made a selection of several books, Bacon's "Essays," Locke's "Human Understanding," Hamilton's "Mental Philosophy," and a selected compilation of standard English literature. He grew in art and methods of reason- ing and analysis, until he became so well trained, bright- ened, and ready for debate and argument, that no man's mere pleading ever escaped him or stood in his way in any discussion. When in 1858 he came to the celebrated wordy combat with Douglas, he forced that master of debate and senatorial tactics, the equal of any man in the Senate, to a disclosure and declaration of his beliefs, which no man in either House or Senate had ever been able to do in all his fifteen years in Congress up to that time. It was no accident that he was able for this talented and high-wrought work. Lincoln, untrained and unstudied, would have been a pleasant, agreeable man, whose stories and humor would have entertained all of his not very large town; but Lincoln, with his great intellect shining in the power of the gathered treasures of time, was another man, a greater than Moses, Luther, or Washington, or Madison in debate, equal and able for one or all of the strongest foemen of the propaganda, Calhoun or his successor, Jefferson Davis. Asahel Gridley, of Bloomington, HI., came there in an early day. He was a lawyer with good attainments, and was an active, untiring, and such an altogether capable man, that, though he had gained high standing and a lucrative business at the bar, he tired of the work as not affording the field of energy suited to his liking. He took to banking, THE MEN OF NTS TIME. 333 real estate operations, and eventually railroad construction and management. He was a prodig}' in his day, taken to be so in his region by those who did and those who did not know him. He was active and energetic, and accumulated a fortune back in the thirties, which was swept away in the financial whirlwind from 1837 to 1840; but he was soon in active business again, and had accumulated a larger fortune by 1850. He was the antithesis of Mr. Lincoln in almost every observable way, but the man among men who did the most, after he knew him, to help establish and sustain Lin- coln in his steadfast progress. His eyes seemed so restless that they flashed a hundred- fold more than diamonds. His perceptions were so strong and his understanding so instant to act, and so complete, that it was said of him, "Gridley knows a man through and through before the rest of us ask him to take a seat or pull off his hat." A volume could be written and do no more than bare justice to this nervous, high-strung, untiring little man; but the facts, as we proceed, will disclose much of him and his friendly, well-directed work for Mr. Lincoln and his cause. Though Mr. Gridley was highly qualified, he would never hold any office in Illinois. This well-observed determina- tion and his earnest support of Lincoln at all times without solicitation, and the further fact that Judge Davis, of Bloom- ington, became prominent as a man who never declined one, obscured Gridley, who said on one occasion: '"Well, it is all right. I don't want any office, and I'm sincere about it; besides. Judge Davis will always serve, and one prominent office-holder like him is enough for a small town like Bloom- ington." As he said, he had not courted notoriety, but con- sistently avoided it in every possible way. In the early fifties he had regained a fortune, and firmly held his wealth and business influence. He was then a prosperous banker, real estate owner, and man of affairs, a man more sought 334 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. after in business and property transactions than any man in that part of the State. He had about retired from the law business, but was in a position where he could turn "a. lot of cases to any lawyer that suits me." Mr. Lincoln was then a growing man in the law as well as in public affairs, and was visiting Bloom- ington regiilarly as lawyer and counsel in its courts. Mr, Gridley was his steadfast friend, as he had been for years; and, retiring from the work, had planned to give Mr. Lincoln the substantial help of turning his law business and new cases as they came over to him. He believed in Lincoln, was his sincere friend, and in proof of it he proceeded with his plan. Taking an early opportunity, he invited Lincoln into his back office, where he said, almost abruptly: ''Mr. Lincoln, if you will come to Bloomington regularly enough to attend to it, I will turn over to you all my law business, and enough more that will come, to make you a respectable living; and it shall be done so unobtrusively that it will disturb no one, nor in the slightest degree deprive any one of his money or his rights." Mr. Lincoln smiled and was pleased, as he made no effort to conceal, and pleasantly asked, "What shall I do, Mr. Gridley, in return for so kind and unexpected a favor as this generous proposal of yours is, if I properly understand it?" "Attend to the business," Mr. Gridley replied. In their pleasant conversation over it, Mr. Gridley con- tinued: "Do not consider this an act of generosity on my part altogether. Your qualifications and standing entitle you to such recognition, and it will be my pleasure to make the business agreeable to you. I will help in every way I can to make Bloomington as much of a home to you as may suit your convenience." This business, which proved to be more than either one of them expected, gave Lincoln as many, if not more, law cases than he had at Springfield. It made a new business center for him and growing law THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 335 practice, which he closely attended to until he was nomi- nated for President in 1860. From Bloomington, as from Springfield, his home, forty miles south, he extended his business to the twelve to fifteen counties of the old Eighth Judicial Circuit lying east to the eastern line of the State, and occasionally into Indiana. Judge Davis presided over the old Eighth Circuit so long, that a great many boys grew to be men while he was holding the office, and many of us came to think that he was the only man fit to hold the office, mainly, perhaps, because no other had done so for many years. At least we knew that those opposed to him could only disagree, but could not find a capable man to contend with him for the judgeship. Thus circumstanced for almost a gener- ation, we came to have confidence in him as a judge. He was a well-qualified, highly-respected man and law- yer, educated in Ohio, finishing his course in Kenyon College. He wa^ a Whig of the strictly conservative sort, as classed in their differing factions, divided according to their radical or conservative ideas on the slavery question. He was always a strange and unsized political quantity, but usually more tenacious concerning his personal affiliations than his political beliefs. He did not like the Democrats of Hlinois personally, and never took to them except to accept an office from them late in life, his keeping of which they regretted as much as they did their giving it. With his personal dislikes for the Democrats, with whom he scarcely held difference on the slavery question, but guided mostly by the reasons given in the Whig dissolution of 1850 to 1852, he drifted into the new-forming Republican party. He had formed a strong attachment and friendship for and with Mr. Lincoln, whom he admired as much as he did any other man; but politically he was reticent and non-committal. Continuing very cautiously, he became more conservative as a recruit to Lincoln's forming party than he had been 336 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. among the "old Silver Grays" under Clay. He was so much so, that during the whole period of his office-holding in the Republican part}^, which was continuous, with all his capa- bilities and his long and complete training, and in a time, too, that wrenched men from doubtful and equivocal hiding- places, he never made a speech or wrote an argument in defense of the party, seemingly satisfied with the personal relation of holding office. An apology was made for him, that judges should ab- stain from party dicussions; but it was at once replied that Roger B. Taney was a judge, and that if he would, in a loyal, searching, and masterly reply, uncover the gaunt and deadly purpose to nationalize slavery in the "Dred Scott decision," as formulated by that judge, he would achieve lasting fame. CHAPTER XV. IIjSTOOLN'S succession to Gridley's business and his in- . fluence was a help that was timely, and which no other man was in a condition to give. They grew to be inti- mate friends, and remained so, with as firm and lasting attachment as ever existed between men of such differing ideas and elements of character. The writer believes that Gridley was the first man to discover the genius of Lincoln. Many believed in Mr. Lincoln as a leader, a coming man, talented and sure to rise, growing up with him from the time that "the boys fell in, marched in line behind him, and made him their captain;" but perhaps about 1851, when the writer was a student at Bloomington, and a favorite of Gridley, he was asked by that gentleman, "What do you think of Lin- coln?" I replied at once, "I like him." Gridley broke out again, louder, but not a bit unpleasant, and with a charm and strength that he was master of: "Like him! Yes, and why should n't you and all the rest of us love him, and follow him as a deliverer? He has the greatest soul in him that T ever saw in a man in my life." This was an impromptu speech, made when I was getting ready for school, but it rang in my ears, and has remained in mind ever since. Judge Davis became, and was to all appearances, an inti- mate friend and associate of Mr. Lincoln. They were to- gether necessarily as they traveled over the circuit month after month for ten or twelve years, at first on horseback and in buggies, and then on the railroads after they were built in 1853-55, when the Illinois Central and the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis Railways were extended through the State. 22 337 338 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lincoln was so well liked all over the circuit by the court, the bar, and the people that it was a real disappointment to them when he was kept away from the term of court in any one of the counties. He became and was respected and honored and trusted as a friend by almost every one who ever knew him throughout the several counties. All knew Lincoln and liked him, for many had heard of or had re- ceived lasting benefits in their communities from his peace- making adjustments. It was believed by those who had the best facilities of knowing, sheriffs' clerks and county attor- neys, that by his advice and earnest co-operation more dis- putes were settled out of the courts than in them, and as a rule these settlements left the litigants friends. At least the number so settled was large, and grew constantly as he became better known. Davis and Lincoln were personal friends, but disagreed widely in political matters. The writer would not disturb the relations of either of them, and their memory would be respected without the relation of the facts and subjects on which they differed. The differences between them, with the writer mixed up in the tangle, gave him an insight into Lincoln's real and heroic character, better than and con- firmatory of Gridley's discovery of his great soul. Davis was a careful, considerate judge, letting the court run with as little restriction as possible on the officers, juries, lawyers, and litigants, not to the point of disorder, but in the easy Western way, "that gave every man a chance," with no favor to any one. Lincoln did not have favor in the court because of personal friendship, for he neither cared for nor desired it; for at any time after 1849 he was fully conscious of his wonderful power over men, and one of the chief objects in many cases at the bar was not how to favor him, but how to prevent in some way the preponderant or overwhelming exercise of his great influence against a con- testant. THE MEN OF HJS TIME. 339 In some terms of court he almost held a little outside court of his own, settling disputes and quarrels between those who ought to have had better sense, as he strongly laid down the principles of justice before them. Leonard Swett, the most brilliant man of the bar next to Lincoln, said: "There is something remarkable about these Lincoln settlements and arbitrations. The parties always submit; they seem to think they have to submit, which is very little short of the power he exercises over a jury, before which these arbitrated disputes would otherwise come. He is so positive and final with them as to make his judgment equiva- lent to a settlement in court. In all my observation of these cases, only one man objected seriously and threatened to take his case into court. It happened he was one of Lin- coln's clients; but when the man objected to Lincoln's arbi- tration, and said, 'I will take the case into court,' Lincoln gave him one of his deep-searching looks, and said, 'Very well, Jim, I will take the case against you for nothing.' But that was unnecessary, for the penetrating look had settled Jim and his case." Swett once again said of him: "If he ever had any su- periors before a jury — and the more intelligent the jury was the better it pleased him — I never heard them. In my younger days I often heard Tom Corwin, Sargent Prentiss, Eufus Choate, and Humphrey Marshall; but Lincoln at his best was more sincere and impressive than all of them, and what he could not accomplish Avith a jury no living man need ever try." His standing with all the members of the bar was so cordial and candid that every lawyer held him his own per- sonal friend; and in the later years after 1850 there was scarcely a term of court in any county which he attended at which he did not make a political address, not because of any special desire, for he declined whenever he could, but the lawyers and all about the court would gather round 340 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. him and persevere with him — Democrats, Whigs, Eepub- licans, Know Nothings or what nots, and those on the fence — and persuade him to make them a speech. This he would do regardless of how little he was inclined or felt like doing it, and when it came there was always something of Lincoln in it, something new, cheerful, and with so much humor in it that it would last for a month; and old and infirm men, too feeble to go anywhere else, went to hear Lincoln, "A plain common feller, and a plain honest man, that anj'body but a fool can always understand." Davis was in many ways a singular man. He would let a case go on apparently oblivious of all that was passing, absorbed in the newspaper or apparently asleep; yet when the case was ready to be submitted he knew all that had happened as well as the most attentive listener at the bar. It was said that on one warm summer afternoon in a tedious case in Bloomington, lawyers, clients, jury, and attendants all believed that Davis was in a sound sleep throughout the case. Mr. Lincoln was counsel on one side, and thinking that Davis had been asleep, full of his exuberant humor, said: "If it please your honor, and the court will wake up, we are ready to submit our cause to the court for instruc- tions to the jury, on the pleadings and testimony." He had made no oral argument, and perhaps did not intend to say more than he had done in the examination of the witnesses; but thinking, as all about the court did, that the judge had been in such deep sleep as not to know whether Lincoln had made an argument, Lincoln did not mention this, that they might enjoy the fun of catching the judge while he was napping. Davis straightened up in his chair at once, say- ing: "The court has been waiting on counsel Lincoln for his argument on the part of the plaintiff for over an hour. This has not been made. If it had been, the court could have reposed comfortably the whole time; but as the case THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 341 is submitted without argument, on the written pleadings and the testimony, the jury will find," etc. The laugh was on Lincoln, who heartily enjoyed the merriment, and increased it by saying, "If it please your honor, I will be pleased to make an argument any time, whenever it will bring comfort and repose to the court." This developed the truth which was often further demon- strated, that Davis could sit for hours in a slumber that was real to all appearances, and restful to him as such, and yet have exact knowledge and remembrance of the course of the trial, the facts and proceedings, so that he was aware of all that had happened, and could in exact memory in time and circumstances correct any point needing his attention afterwards with only a short interruption. Davis had a capacious mind, so well habilitated and trained to his work that his faculty of remembering was in full exercise during his sleep. None of the lawyers after the above incident ever tried to "wake up the court," but his faculty to hear and remember during sleep was ever a psy- chological wonder. There were extreme differences in many of their beliefs between Lincoln and Davis, and in their con- duct and management of affairs as well; still they were in pleasant and constant association for many years, in perfect harmony, without disputes of consequence or any that ever troubled many besides themselves. This harmony was with- out doubt the cause of Lincoln's kind and agreeable dispo- sition, and his constant determination to contend with no one wherever it could be avoided. Hence at the expense of being a very much undiscovered man at home, his whole life was so shaped as to make all others about him comfortable, easy, and contented, if they could be, without disputing or wrangling on his part. An incident which the writer remembers, and which occurred some time early in 1852, disclosed one of their 342 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. striking contrasts. There were then two men, Isaac and John Crumbaugh, brothers, thrifty and industrious farmers in McLean Count}^ near Bloomington. They were large, bony, and muscular men, over six feet in stature, Tennessee- ans, very much alike in appearance, manners, habits, dress, and speech. They were at or near fifty years of age, men of character, "level-headed," and respected everywhere. This was one of the years when Davis was a candidate for re-election. He had no opposition, and therefore no doubt of election, but, as any reasonable man would, he desired the cordial support of both of the Crumbaughs. One of them was a straight "Old-line Whig." The other was one of the most zealous Jackson Democrats in all that region. Both of them had known the old hero in Tennessee, and, as remembered, their father was with him at New Orleans, at least in some of his military service. Davis had given them advice on some legal business, and had frequently had dealings with them; for with his careful and accumulating habits he was a large land-owner, and owned some lands and farms in their neighborhood. Davis desired the support of both, but would have approached the subject to each one very differently if he could have been sure of the identity when he met them. Their close resem- blance confused him, as it did many who met them only occasionally, and there was the further difficulty, when they were known, of knowing which was Whig and which was Democrat. On the morning in question one of them was in Davis's office early, when the three of us were the only ones present. Davis wanted to know of the writer, and whispered asking which he was, Whig or Democrat; but the writer, knowing as little as Davis, replied that he only knew that it was Mr. Crumbaugh. So the easiest way for Davis was to approach the subject cautiously, and not stir up the Jackson Democrat, if it was he. So he addressed him pleasantly, "Mr. Crumbaugh, my term as judge of this THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 34 S circuit closes this year, and I will be thankful for the sup- port of my neighbors." His manner and look disclosed at once that he was the Jacksonian, and that he would not only not "cordially support Davis," but that he would bo glad to help defeat him, if that became possible. The man's air and perfect ease disconcerted Davis, who, rising, and walking up and down the room, showed unusual excitement for him; for he had, among other qualities, re- markable control of his temper. However, he was out of humor, and far away from the natural calm and suave bear- ing he was so accustomed to; and, apparently tormented by Crumbaugh's ease, he spoke emphatically, "Well, I do n't know that any one will be a candidate against me." Crum- baugh seemed to have just got ready, and, in effect, taking up Davis's statement, continued: "Nuther do I; but as we have to have Whigs fur about all our county en' naberhood offises, I fur one would like to hev a leetle choice about it; and ef we could elect Abe, Jedge, I 'd be mity glad. He 'd make a good one, en' while I 'm not sa5dn' nuthin' agin' you, I think he 's one uv the straitest men I ever knew, ef he is a Whig." Davis seemed to have entirely lost control of himself, and, while Crumbaugh was drawling out his slow-spoken sentences, he had wrought himself to a high state of ex- citement. When the latter closed, he brought his great, clenched fist down on the table, rattling the books, rulers, papers, and other loose things on it, like a few rocks in an empty wagon, until several of them fell to the floor, and, rolling about, increased the confusion. Unheeding all this at the second or third stroke of his fist, he roared out: "It will not do, sir. Lincoln, although a great man in our State, and a good one, as we all know, deserving more than he has ever received or has been offered him, is not fit to be a judge. His ideas of property rights and legislation protecting them are too loose altogether; and we all know 344 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. that he is too sympathetic and too easily influenced to be a judge. If he were one, there would only be one side in court, and that would be that of the poor, thriftless people, who squander uselessly most of what they get and earn," Crumbaugh, who sat not at all disconcerted, replied: "I cum mity nigh agreein' with you. Lincoln would be the pore man's friend. He alius has been, en' them 's the ones that need pertectin' in the courts and everywhar else in the country, en' you need n't worry about the other not a-bein' perfected; fur the rich folks en' them in big places they alius take good keer uv themselves. But do n't git riled, Jedge. I never know till 'lection time how I 'm goin' to vote when only Whigs is a-runnin'. I '11 tell Ike about it, en' I know he '11 do what he kin fur you ; but without disrespectin' you, or anythin' uv thet sort, I 'd like mity well, as I sed afore, to see Abe 'lected jedge, en' help to do it." Mr. Crumbaugh was out and gone in a moment. Davis stood angered, perplexed, and amazed; but, recovering him- self pretty soon, he said: "Perhaps I was excited. Lincoln does n't live in this district, anyway ; but did any one ever see anything more provoking than Crumbaugh's drawling, easy way, which he seemed to enjoy, and the non-concern which- he showed when he saw how he had thrown me off of my balance? But it's all true: Lincoln, good man as lie is, is not the kind of man for a judge; nor does he ever intend to be a judge. He says so himself, but it will be best to be discreet about this little excitement, and not to mention it." Boy as I was, I saw all that was involved in the relation between the men, but agreed with Davis that it was best to be discreet and say nothing about it. I was not excited, and realized what Davis did not seem to do, when I remarked: "We may be quiet about it; but what about Mr. Crumbaugh, who seemed pleased and delighted, and went off in a humor THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 345 that you might expect him to tell all about it to the first friend he meets?" "Well, well, that is so. I must see him at once. Lin- coln might hear it, and not understand it. I '11 see him right away." And Davis swung out of the office on the fastest gait he had ever made up the street. Crumbaugh was not dif- ferent from the thousands of the plain country people who knew and loved Lincoln all over the district; and if Mr. Lincoln had lived in the eighth circuit, and not in Spring- field, Mr. Crumbaugh could have nominated him alone, and the people would have elected him over Davis or any one else, which we all knew by that time. The episode was much of a rebuke to Davis, who seemed, in the future, to find further differences with Mr. Lincoln on political matters. However, Mr. Lincoln was not to be judge, nor governor, nor commissioner of the land-office. Others more alert in office-seeking got such places, usually with his help. He probably could have been nominated by the Whigs for judge in the Springfield Circuit, but it was so strongly Democratic in 1850 that he had no desire for the contest. He did not live in the Bloomington Circuit; but if he had taken to the idea of being judge in that, he could have accomplished it in some way; and this worried Davis, for he understood the matter better than any other man. Lincoln went through the campaign of 1S48, in which Taylor and Fillmore, against Cass and Butler, were the Whig and Democratic candidates, respectively. He under- took it with more energy, more finished addresses, and bet- ter control of himself as a speaker, reasoner, and logical debater than he had reached before his two-years' discipline and practice in Congress. After he had canvassed New England, he made one or two speeches in New York, where he formed a number of desirable acquaintances, which were of much advantage to him. He returned home, and made 346 ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. the most complete canvass he had ever made of his own State. In addition, he made several speeches in Indiana and one in St. Louis, Mo. When the work was over, he had reached such distinc- tion and had done so much for the party that he was well entitled and should have been invited to a place in Presi- dent Taylor's Cabinet; for in Congress and through a po- litical campaign that made Taylors election possible, no man had done more, but the fact of Illinois being a reliable Democratic State stood as an unsurmountable barrier; and Presidents in those days selected men for Cabinet and promi- nent places from the shore-line of the Atlantic and scarcely two hundred miles inward. The great West and Southwest have occasionally had a President; but those busy fellows down East, from Cape Cod to Hatteras, and a hundred miles or two inward, with their Jacksonian emergency, have got the thousands of dis- posable offices, contracts, and "the plunder*' of every Ad- ministration. When the campaign was over, and the patronage was being distributed, Mr. Lincoln was not favored with an in- vitation into Taylor's Cabinet, but was favored in being set aside as a candidate for commissioner of the general land-office at Washington. In some way, by the advice of friends, he became a candidate for the office mentioned, mostly because he bore the expenses of his campaign and the loss of several months' time without remuneration of any kind. By some sort of office dividing and distribution it was conceded that this office should be given to Illinois — a fourth or fifth rate position to a first-class State, but one then that was "away out West." But kind fortune and a wise Providence that never deserted him kept him out of the four years' smothering treadmill of official place in Washington City, that would have taken him away from the people and entirely out of his line of work. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 347 There were four candidates — Cyrus Edwards, J. L. D. Morrison, late one of the gaUant volunteers from Illinois, with Taylor in Mexico, who helped considerably to make Taylor President; Lincoln, whom M'e have mentioned; and Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, who was neither prominent nor known of before the election in State or National poli- tics. He was not even a returned volunteer, but neverthe- less he got the office through the Jersey cabal. He was an indefatigable worker, and learned just how to make the Washington hitch. Declining to appoint Lincoln land commissioner, Tay- lor's Administration offered to appoint him governor of Oregon, which was then a Territory; but he had the good sense, by and with the consent of his wife, to decline. Some of his best friends were in that year [1849] shortsighted enough to urge him to accept the place, with the hope that he would be made a senator from it as soon as it was admitted as a State. This appeared probable, as its popu- lation was rapidly increasing. Only a few years before he probably would have accepted the place; for it was true throughout his life that he had a strong ambition to be a United States senator. He was several times a candidate, but never when his party could elect him. In the Illinois Legislature following Taylor's election he was the Whig party's candidate against General Shields. The General had recovered from his severe wound at Cerro Gordo, and was nominated and elected ITnited States sena- tor by the Democrats, who had a decided majority. With these political distributions all settled and out of the way, after the active political campaigns, which he could not escape, he entered upon his law business with increased confidence in his qualifications and the indomitable energy that had always been his chief reliance, so that between 1848 and 1858 he prospered in his profession as he had never done before, and that, too, with more liberality to his 348 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. clients in the moderate fees he accepted for his valuable services. He had become high authority at the bar, and in almost every important suit or contention in the circuit, and in man}^ outside, he was usually counsel on one side or the other in the leading cases. Having his choice, usually he took the side on which the equities rested, as a rule. In this course of practice he became a lawyer's counsel or lead- ing counsel in every vigorously-contested case in many terms, becoming such so often that he was frequently on one side or the other of almost every suit in the county. His fees, as we have stated, were always moderate, and it happened occasionally that of the fees he had received through other lawyers he would return some part of them, and, in some cases, all of them. About 1849 he returned something like fifty dollars in one term to several clients in the above way in suits in which he was satisfied with less fees than his associates had collected and divided with him. This was at the Bloomington bar, where several of them, believing that he was improperly lowering his fees for justly-earned legal service, submitted it to Judge Davis, with the request that he admonish Mr. Lincoln concerning his very low fees, which they claimed discriminated against the younger men at the bar. Davis believed that the lawyers were right and that Lincoln was at fault. He took occasion to present it to Mr. Lincoln privately, when, in substance, the following vigorously-expressed and quite animated consideration of the matter occurred. Davis began addressing Mr. Lincoln, saying: "Several members of this bar at Bloomington, who are your friends — those who consult with and are associ- ated with you in their suits — are, as I believe, justly ag- grieved that you make your fees lower than they should be for" your services, which necessarily brings all their fees lower. This works constant dissatisfaction, especially so THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 349 with the younger members, who, we all know, receive in- sufficient fees for comfortable living, and are often driven to other work temporarily." Davis continued: "In the cor- dial friendship which has always prevailed, I mention it to you only because several younger members have requested me, and I have come to believe that they have just cause of complaint, and that you should act in harmony with the gentlemen here in charging fees that are reasonable enough to enable them to live comfortably." However much Judge Davis may have intended to pre- sent these objections to ]\Ir. Lincoln as friendly advice, and not as a remonstrance, it came to Lincoln as the latter, be- cause the principal complaint was that his part of his fee in the settlement of an estate had been mostly returned. In that case Mr. Lincoln thought that no more than a nomi- nal fee should be taken, if any; for, like many such in court, the expenses had covered about all of the available assets, and was leaving very little for some needy, growing-up children. Mr. Lincoln replied, not wrought up to any unusual feeling, but in a manner that left no doubt of the power and resolution behind his statement. It was his emphatic way and determination in which he always addressed any one when he had reached a conclusion, not appearing to be unreasonably firm or the least obtrusive, yet so fixed in his beliefs that, instinctiveh', any one felt that, whatever others might do, there was small probability of change on his part. He sat down and assumed, if he did not feel, composure, and talked in his umnistakable high key and most impressive tone of voice: "If it please Your Honor, I am aware that the young lawyers are poor, and several of the older ones, like my- self, make no more than a living, and at least do no better than men of equal capacity in other occupations. It is not long since I went through all the grinding, waiting, and 350 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. pinching of a 3'oung man with no business to speak of, and I assure you that I am sincerely sorry for all, and, knowing well the sort of struggle, sympathize with, often to the extent of helping them as I can. But the people all about us are poorer even than these waiting lawyers. They came West, as a rule, to earn their homes, not to buy them; for there were very few of them, indeed, who brought more than a team of horses, or oxen, and a wagon, which contained the belongings of the entire family. They are still in the work of earning their homes or making them habitable. I passed through the hard labor of it myself not many years since, and have at this day a lively recollection of the hard work and privations which they can not escape. I have an earnest interest in the young men of our bar here, many of Avhom are doing very well; but so long as I live among the good people about here, who have always favored me beyond my expectations, they must be considered as much, or more, than the young lawyers. I shall attend to the people's business in the courts, intrusted to me, for moder- ate fees, such as I, on information, conclude that they are able to pay, and for which I can afford to work; and, with due respect to you and these gentlemen, whenever it be- comes a fact that I can not fix the amount of my remunera- tion in any case, or the part of it that belongs to me, satis- factorily, I will find business elsewhere, and not further trouble you nor them." Judge Davis was nonplused, surprised, and chagrined, for one reason: that he had been a referee in like cases many times, with entire agreement as to his findings and settlements of them; but here was a man who was going to have his own way, and whom, above all others, he did not Avant to drive away from his circuit or from Bloomington, if indeed any one had such desire; for Davis himself, in the reserved condition in which he lived, a judicial, impartial man, with few acquaintances, in almost isolated reserve THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 351 from the general public, -with few associates and no inti- mate ones outside of the lawyers, had higher apprecia- tion of Lincoln, perhaps, than any one in the circuit. So he hastily changed his manner, saying: "Mr. Lincoln, I only sought to advise you. Lender no circumstances would I think of doing more. You must take this as friendly ad- vice concerning these young men, and do, as we all wish, the very best we can for them. You are not to entertain the thought of leaving the bar here or the circuit. No one is more welcome in it, and no one will do more to make it pleasant and agreeable for you to remain than myself." While upon this topic, it will be appropriate to insert the tribute which Judge Davis wrote on the work and char- acter of Mr. Lincoln shortly after his death. While several of the statements are at fault on the subject of Mr. Lin- coln's reading and information, it is nevertheless a sincere and worthy offering, in illustration of the mind and char- acter of the man whom he knew so well: "I enjoyed for over twenty years the personal friendship of Mr. Lincoln. We were admitted to the bar about the same time, and traveled for many years what is known in Illinois as the Eighth Judicial Circuit. In 1848 I first went on the bench. The circuit embraced fourteen coun- ties, and Mr. Lincoln went with the court to every county. Railroads were not then in use, and our mode of travel was either on horseback or in buggies. This simple life he loved, preferring it to the practice of law in a city, where, although the remuneration would be greater, the oppor- tunity would be less for mixing up with the great body of the people, whom he loved, and who loved him. "Mr. Lincoln was transferred from the bar of that cir- cuit to the office of President of the United States, hav- ing been without official position since he left Congress in 1849. In all the elements that constitute the great lawyer 352 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. he had few equals. He was great, both at Nisi Prius and before an Appellate tribunal. He seized the strong points of a cause, and presented them with clearness and great compactness. His mind was logical, and he did not indulge in extraneous discussion. Generalities and platitudes had no charms for him. An unfailing vein of humor never de- serted him, and he was able to claim the attention of the court and Jury, when the cause was the most uninteresting, by the appropriateness of his anecdotes. "His power of comparison was large, and he rarely failed in a legal discussion, to use that mode of reasoning. The frame-work of his mental and moral being was honesty, and a wrong cause was poorly defended by him. The abil- ity which some eminent lawyers possess of explaining away the bad points, b}^ ingenious sophistry, was denied him. In order to bring into activity his great powers, it was nec- essary that he should be convinced of the right and justice of the matter which he advocated. When so convinced, whether the cause was great or small, he was usually suc- cessful. He read law books but little, except when the cause in hand made it necessary; yet he was usually self- reliant, depending on his own resources, and rarely con- sulting his brother lawyers either in the management of his cause or on the legal questions involved. "Mr. Lincoln was the fairest and most accommodating of practitioners, granting all favors which were consistent with his duty to his client, and rarely availing himself of an unwary oversight of his adversaries. He hated ^\Tong and oppression everywhere, and many a man whose fraudu- lent conduct was undergoing review in a court of justice has writhed under his terrific indignation and rebukes. He was the most simple and unostentatious of men in his hab- its, having few wants, and those easily supplied. "To his honor be it said that he never took from a client, even when his cause was gained, more than he thought the THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 353 services were worth and the client could reasonably afford to pay. The people where he practiced were not rich, and his charges were always small. When he was elected Presi- dent, I question whether there was a lawyer in the circuit who had been at the bar so long a time whose means were not larger. "It did not seem to be one of the purposes of his life to accumulate a fortune. In fact, outside of his profession, he had no knowledge of the way to make money, and he never even attempted it. Mr. Lincoln was loved by his brethren of the bar, and no body of men will grieve more at his death or pay more sincere tribute to his memory. His presence on the circuit was watched for with interest, and never failed to produce joy or hilarity. When casually absent, the spirits of both bar and people were depressed. He was not fond of litigation, and would compromise a law suit whenever it was practicable." Judge Drummond, one of the ablest, most experienced, and impartial jurists in his day, said of Lincoln: "With a probity of character known to all, wdth an intuitive insight into the human heart, with a clearness of statement which was in itself an argument, with uncommon power of felicity of illustration, often it is true of a plain and homely kind; and with that sincerity and earnestness of manner which carried conviction, he was perhaps one of the most success- ful jury lawyers we ever had in the State. He always tried a case fairly and honestly. He never intentionally misrep- resented the evidence of a witness nor the argument of an opponent. *^e met both squarely; and if he could not explain the one or the other substantially, admitted it. He never mis- stated the law according to his own intelligent view of it. Such was the transparent candor and sincerity of his na- ture that he could not well or strongly argue the side or a cause that he thought wrong. Of course, he felt his duty 23 354 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to say what could be said, and leave the decision to others; but there could be seen in such cases the inward struggle of his own mind. In trying a case he might occasionally dwell too long upon or give too much importance to an inconsiderable point; but this was the exception, and gen- erally he went straight to the citadel of the cause or ques- tion, and struck home, knowing, if that were done, the outworks would necessarily follow. "He could hardly be called very learned in his profes- sion, and yet he rarely tried a cause without fully under- standing the law applicable to it; and I have no hesitation in saying he was one of the ablest lawyers I have ever known. If he was forcible with a jury, he was equally so with the court. He detected, with unerring sagacity, the weak point of an opponent's argument, and pressed his own views with overwhelming strength. His efforts were quite unequal, and it might happen that he would not, on some occasion, strike one as at all remarkable. But let him be thoroughly roused, and let him feel that he was right and that some principle was involved in his cause, and he would come out with an earnestness of conviction, a power of argument, a wealth of illustration, that I have never seen surpassed." These able jurists, in their comments, have truly repre- sented him, save in the one feature in which he was so continuously misrepresented, in which Davis says, "He read law books but little, except w^hen the cause in hand made it necessary." Drummond says, "He could hardly be called very learned in his profession, and yet he rarely tried a cause Avithout fully understanding the law applicable to it." Both these men were eminent jurists and able in their profession; but, as judges usually do, they were intent to seek defects even in the high tribute and commendation they were endeavoring to pay to his great character. The full, free, and the highest approbation they could write sets aside the high value of their opinions about his reading or TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 355 learning. Drummond conspicuously remarks that "he never misstated the law." It has been treated before, but it should be observed again here, that the practitioners at the bar whom he met and contended with in the courts and the able statesmen whom he was constantly meeting were much better able to understand the scope of his reading and the extent and nature of his learning than even these friendly judges, whose habits and restricted lines of study made them re- viewers of what they thought was lacking in a man or cause. The defects which these commentators first assert are all explained away in their concurrent testimony, that he was about the best-prepared lawyer to take care of causes and actions whom they ever knew. If a man could do that much, as Lincoln surely did, and as they as surely said, surrounded and met and contended with, as he was, by the most learned, the brightest, the most and best thoroughly informed, then Lincoln possessed that which was better than mere classic language and more useful than wide and unused reading. He had this high capacity, genius, a mind beyond human measurement. Nevertheless, as sure as he possessed the godlike genius, which has been given so few men in all the world's history, he got the learning also, possessed himself of it in his own persevering way, and in every case at bar or in counsel, in legislation or in executive council, he was never defective in the required knowledge or course of procedure, and more emphatically so with and before the people who knew him best and trusted him most. And who of all our own or the great world's leaders equaled or surpassed him? Davis's contribution contains the truthful statement, plainly written, of his highest qualification and the basis of his enduring place in the hearts of men, saying that in a city "the opportunity would be less for mixing with the great body of the people, whom he loved, and who loved him." 356 ABE AH AM LINCOLN: He delighted being with the people, and being one of them, not to find some way to make a great fortune out of them, but in the work of helping, advising, earing for, getting them out of trouble, and helping them to get the last pay- ment made on their homesteads. Lincoln was a terror to the '^and-sharks," who prospered, while the hardy pioneer was compelled to push westward, seeking a home. He helped and saved many; but he and all those inclined to help could not save all of them, for the schemes of these cormorants, in all their devious ways, were past finding out, and could not be wholly prevented. They seemed, at times, to be so thick in and about the United States land-offices that they were, in some of them, like the flies in Egypt. He was educated, learned, and sufficiently informed to hold the place he did at the Springfield bar, where he met and tried his causes in court, and the same in his conten- tions elsewhere, with Major Stuart, Judge Logan, Governor Edwards and his son, Governor Eeynolds, "the old ranger," as keen as any fox; Judge Douglas, the peer and associate of Calhoun, Webster, Benton, and Clay; Judges Sidney Breese and Samuel H. Treat, jurists for a lifetime; Shields and Hardin, brave and capable men; and Edward D. Baker, citizen, senator, and soldier, brilliant, blazing, dazzling in description as a fiery meteor, smoothest, softest, and still the most stiletto-tongued soldier who ever charmed the Senate. But why should any one doubt Lincoln's surpassing greatness, his intellect, and his majestic strength, or his knowledge and preparation, that was equal to any undertak- ing he ever made? There were Yates and Oglesby and Cul- lom — all to be governors — Trumbull, Browning, Palmer, Logan, McClernand, Prentiss, Wm. N". Coler, John Went- worth, Arnold, Judd, Hurlbut, Judge Gillespie, Dubois, Hatch, and JVIilton Hay, of Illinois, and Henry S. Lane, Daniel Voorhees, and Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana, and THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 357 Frank P. Blair and Edward Bates, of Missouri. These and a full hundred more in the West, who should all be remembered, knew Lincoln well, and knew the truth of John Hanks's early observation that "the fellers who think they can take any unfair advantage or get ahead of Abe, and they know more 'n he does, vv^hen he sets himself at it and gets down to study, and puts his mind to do, are sure to get left." Lincoln grew and prospered and became, not only dis- tinguished, but eminent and wise, as his capacious mind gathered and stored whatever was worth the saving; while all of New England, New York, and New Jersey, with their Adamses, Sewards, Weeds, Greeleys, and Freling- huysens, could raise distinguished, well-learned, and capable men, but could not and did not produce such a man and leader, and for the very good cause that God alone, in his wisdom, raises up such men wheresoever he will. In their pettishness and contracted shore-line vision, that could see nothing west of the Alleghanies, some of the cultured, college-bred men said that Lincoln was ''an ig- noi*ant, unlettered man." As they knew nothing about him — at least, not enough to authorize judgment of the man or what he knew — they merely invented what they told. The story, that never had basis in truth, has been kept going by college-bred and ill-bred men ever since, whose information would be enlarged more than it ever has been if their minds could be open to know the real char- acter, wisdom, comprehensive information, and the true greatness of Abraham Lincoln. The men who worked day after day in the hard work of settlements, and sometimes with very much excited litigants, and in business adjust- ments of large properties, never for a moment considered him lacking in any information or learning that was neees- sai-y to manage the most intricate and complicated business that came into our court for adjudication. 358 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Until college training and study can produce such men as Washington, Franklin, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor, Horace Greeley, Fulton, Ericsson, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison, it will be seemly, wise, and more in the line of common sense not to write down men as ignorant who have better preparation for the work they are in than the men of the colleges and universities, who have had the special training, but who never had the talent. It will be well to consider, also, that many men get better prepa- ration for the work of their lives outside of the colleges than in them, and that the very best that colleges or higher- named schools can do is so to train the youth, as they gain knowledge through their few years of student life, that they may have the industry, application, and disciplined methods of study and investigation ground into them by which they may afterwards become scholars if their lives are devoted to scholarly pursuits. This might help to stop the rant that a young man or woman comes out of a four- years' course a scholar, when, in truth, they have barely acquired the means by which they may gain an education. Mr. Lincoln grew up to life and business and became a learned and wise man among such, and maintained his po- sition as he rose in knowledge, wisdom, and enlightened judgment. In the old eighth circuit there were many men of learning and high capacity, many of whom were trained in colleges, and many were not; and it would be strange to find any one of them who ever had a reasonable belief that Lincoln was in any sense an unlearned and unlettered man. These stories sprang up farther East, where years were devoted to languages never used, where Greek philos- ophy and forgotten legends and theories constitute a cer- tain kind of education, but which, to busy, active men on this Western Continent is much less instructive and useful than a better knowledge of the history of the great Missis- sippi Valley would be. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 359 What men need as education is training, knowledge of and instruction in the business or occupation in which they must spend their lives. At the Bloomington bar there were David Davis, Gridley, and Leonard Swett, the emi- nent and indefatigable criminal law pleader, who became reno^Tied as among the best pleaders of his time, whose skill and tireless energy saved more men from execution than any American lawyer; there was McDougal, afterwards a senator from California, learned, eloquent, and honored; there was Jesse Fell, able, clear-headed, and an old-time Abolitionist; there were Wickizer, quick, able, and excitable; McWilliams, a trained and able pleader, from jSTew York; Lawrence Weldon, a bright, eloquent young man from Ohio, who always "lighted into his case in time, and surprised us some way" — a fine pleader, who has long since been snugly tucked away in one of the dusty judgeships at Washington City; and C. H. Moore, of Clinton, a thrifty, careful busi- ness man of more than fifty years' experience and success. At the TJrbana bar, in Champaign County, there were Colonel Wm. N. Coler, soldier of two wars, and one of the most competent and successful la^^^ers and business-men of our State; Judge Wm. Somers, a lifetime able, careful, and prudent lawyer and a straight Jackson Democrat for more than sixty years. There were also at the same bar Colonel James Wolfe, who became a gallant soldier in the war for the Union; Thompson Webber, a careful, prudent, and very well-informed man; Judge J. 0. Cunning- ham, for over forty years one of the most careful and re- liable practitioners, who is still learning and plodding on; and James B. McKinley, a clear-headed lawyer and a busy man of affairs in several counties. At the Danville bar there was Judge Oliver Davis, who succeeded Judge David Davis when President Lincoln promoted the latter to the United States Supreme Court. He was an able, learned man, and became an acceptable successor to David Davis. There was, 360 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. too, the imj)etuoiis, daring Wai'd H. Lamon, who became intimate with Mr. Lincoln, went with him, and remained with him in Washington throughout his life. There were these, and a hundred or more who are well entitled to recognition. Some have passed from memory, and some are passed for want of space who were meritorious and successful men of learning, capacity, business sense, and comjDetency that made them accredited and able counsel in one of the richest basins and among the most industrious- turned peoples in the world. Some time during 1850, Mr. Lincoln was selected to repri- mand a young man at the Bloomington bar who had disclosed valuable information to a defendant whose counsel he be- came — information which he had obtained and was using of the cause at action from his preceptor's office while he was there as a law student, his preceptor being counsel for the plaintiff. The young man, on learning that an action to disbar him would be brought, and likely prevail — for the facts were indisputable — begged the leniency of the court, agreeing to leave the bar and the county, and to reform, if he were allowed to do so without open and re- corded dismissal. The judge, Davis, in conclusion, determined that he should be reproved in open court, after which he would have permission to withdraw, and selected Lincoln to ad- minister the reproof, whose manner and appearance in call- ing the young man to the bar bore evidence in the tone, look, and determination of condemnation and sorrow with it, and in its deliverance, that can in no wise be described or written. It was, in part, as kept in very impressive memory: "Sir, you have polluted the ermine of this court of justice, that should be as pure and spotless as the driven snow or the light of the brightest stars in the firmament. Justice is not a fiction; and though it is often held to be a sentiment THE MEN OF JUS TIME. 361 onh', or a remote ideal, it is real, and it is bounded and guarded on all sides by the strongest powers of Divine and human law. The court will not pronounce j^our disbar- ment; you have done that yourself. The people will trust no one, without sincere reformation, who has been wrong and reckless, as you admit, in one of the most confiding rela- tions that ever exist between men. "A client is in court by his lawj^er so often, and the custom so generally prevails that if he is not represented by honorable and trustworthy counsel, the right is of little value, and he is virtually denied the justice to which our laws entitle him. The Wisest has said that 'no man can serve two masters.' In your default you have used the infor- mation obtained in your preceptor's office while he was counsel for the plaintiff. You have done so when you were counsel for the defendant, his adversary in the action, using such information surreptitiously and without permission of the plaintiff, who fully confided in your preceptor as counsel and in you because of your relation of law student in his office. In this way you have been using the knowledge which you have gained from both parties in a way that no faithful and conscientious lawyer should do, and certainly very much to the detriment of one of them. "A lawyer who becomes by his admission to the bar of any of our courts part of the judicial establishment of the land, should have integrity beyond question or reproach. Courts of law as of equity can sustain no other without them- selves becoming venal and corrupt. A tarnished lawyer is a homeless man. Therefore seek until you find a real refor- mation in honest work, and the court will approve." The young man took the kind-hearted man's advice in its highest meaning, and accomplished a sincere reformation, becoming in another State a useful and honorable member of the profession. Lincoln's object was attained in the administration of the rebuke. His condemnation was 362 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. strong and impressive, but at the same time his genuine sympathy for the man who was inclined to reform was the strongest and most pathetic part of this unequaled reproof, which wrought out the work he intended it should. When he had finished there was deep silence until it was broken by Mr. Lincoln, who, in taking the young man's hand, said, "We bid thee God-speed in a work that will make you a better man." CHAPTER XYI. THE annexation of Texas and the acquisition of the large territory from Mexico, followed by the discovery of gold, silver, and many other valuable minerals in it, and the admission of California as a free State in September, 1850, reopened the slavery question as effectually as though there had never been an agreement or settlement. In the settlement at the adoption of the Constitution slavery was in effect left to the States for their control, but it per- mitted the enumeration of three-fifths of the colored races, except Indians, including slaves and freedmen of all shades, in making up population and ratios for members of Congress, and electors for President and Vice-President. Thus the salveholding States were allowed representation for three out of five of their slaves, and that much political power, as the first adjustment of the slave system to our laws. The great extension of slave-territory was made under the Louisiana purchase of 1803, and the Spanish cession of Florida territory in 1819, ending in the admission of Missouri as a slave State in 1820, with the agreed condition or pro- viso that slavery should not be extended in the future north of the south line of Missouri, 36 degrees, 30 minutes. This was the second settlement of the territorial limits and boundaries of slavery, and the contravention of the avowed policy of the founders of the Nation, who in the cession of the Northwest Territory endeavored to establish a precedent that slavery should not be extended into any territory be- longing to the United States, as stated in the previous con- sideration of the Virginia cession of 1787. 363 364 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Late in 1845, Nimmo Browne was in Springfield, Illinois, finishing up his work on the capitol building, making final settlement. President Polk had been inaugurated in March, and in July, General Taylor had embarked from New Orleans with a militia force of some fifteen hundred. At the time of his writing, about October, he had landed and had control of the mouth and west side of the Eio Grande River, thereby taking forcible possession of Mexican territory, because up to that time the Texans only claimed territory east of the Neuces River, which is about one hundred miles east of the Eio Grande. While there, just before leaving, Browne held an ani- mated discussion with Judge Douglas, who asked Browne, "Do you still adhere to your anti-slavery notions, and what do you think of the situation?" He replied: "I am an Abolitionist, more pronounced than ever, if anything, as fanatical as you choose to have or represent me. The Presi- dent, as was expected, is a supple servant of the slave- power. He has provoked war by the hostile seizure of Mexican territor}-, and evidently intends to carry it on against Mexico, for which there can be no other reason than to enlarge the domain and power of slavery. "I am, of course, not as well qualified to express opinions as one to the manner born, but there can be no doubt that President Polk has levied war against a friendly Power. I am surprised at the apathy and listlessness of the free people of the Northern States, who are being deceived year after year in what I call twaddling debates and faithless compro- mises, which are mere pretenses that the pro-slavery people never intended to nor ever will abide by. "President Polk has virtually issued a proclamation of war for the purpose of extending the free-labor-crushing system of slavery, and it means much more than even such useful servants as you are allowed to know. In the course of events and the run of similar contests in historv, taken as THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 366 wise men estimate them, it means war for the propagation of slaver}^ and if the South is successful in wresting free territory from Mexico for slave extension, it means war at home for the same purpose, ultimately, when the slave- holders get ready to supjjress our free institutions and ex- tend it all over the Nation. As long as they can aggrandize sufficient power to take another foot of territory for the spread of their system they will do so. This is really a state of war, or government by force, taking a man's labor and holding him in durance, not by law or justice founded on it. "I do n't have the means of estimating the results of the contest so well as you, but I do seriously believe that the contest into which our people will be plunged by this war, begun only to extend slavery, will not end until this is a slave Republic, M^hich these Southerners deliberately intend to make it, or until slavery is extinguished in blood or a revo- lution, perhaps both. For my owm part, I care personally very little about who is elected to office, and living in St. Louis, which is in a slave State, I expect to have little con- cern in public affairs; but in the future, except it be to help a friend to some small position, I shall not act or vote with any party that is not seriously engaged in anti-slavery work, and favors the most rapid extinction of the evil. Therefore, as I stated in the beginning, I am an Abolitionist." Douglas seemed amazed at the statement of his personal friend. The conversation continued from evening until late at night, both vigorously contending to the close. Much of it has been forgotten, but several distinct parts of it are clear to the waiter's mind to this day. Douglas was a tac- tician of consummate skill, and sought long to confuse Browne on several of his statements. In one particularly he said that the Constitution in recognizing slavery, even indi- rectly, sustained it, and gave it legal existence in the Nation. He said that for himself he would vote against slavery in 366 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. any locality where he lived, hut that slavery was fixed upon us in a system of law and practice or precedents, and that we must treat it and deal with it as we do all other subjects in a lawful and constitutional manner; that Abolitionists were utterly unreasonable about it, and were extremists and dangerous agitators on their side, as the rabid slavery men were on the other. Whatever a few people might believe about it, the great body of the American people were in favor of non-intervention, or not meddling with it, and were waiting for a peaceful solution in the future. As for himself, he said if he held leadership he would necessarily have to conform his ideas and conduct to that of a majority of his party, whether they coincided with his own or not, and that slavery is not always bad as you ex- tremists declare. "It has been recognized in some form by all nations up to the present time, that have exercised power or control for any considerable period, or over territory half as large as ours. Slavery to the African is not so bad as his wild and savage condition in his own country, yet I am no apologist for slavery, nor have I the fears of it which you express, I am more inclined to Mr. Webster's belief that it is certain to perish in its competition with free labor. "In the high regard I have for you, I sincerely hope that you will be discreet, and not be as outspoken in your anti- slavery opinions in your home in St. Louis, in a slave State. Men are daily fanning the flame that may end in bloodshed, and I Avould sincerely regret to hear of your injury or that you were in any way molested." Browne replied: "I will try to take up your reasonings; but as they occur to my mind, I do not wish you to have any doubt of my beliefs, nor fear for me; I am not inclined to political or public discussion, and expect no personal trouble. I have said that I am taking so little interest in party politics that I seldom vote, but to disabuse your mind and relieve whatever fear you may have, there are thousands THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 367 of Germans, Scotchmen, Englishmen, and Irishmen in St. Louis, almost all of whom are anti-slavery men, and not a bit backward about expressing their views. The city is anti- slavery out and out. There is vastly greater freedom of speech permitted on the subject there than there is here, so that I would feel free to talk against slavery publicly, as several whom I know there do, if I was inclined. So far I have been satisfied with stating where any were inclined to know, that I was an anti-slavery man, who could be de- pended on whenever there was occasion for my help. "We and our ancestors, yours and mine, were brought up under the same prevailing ideas, education, training, lines of industry, and beliefs, and should not differ widely without some active disturbing cause, which I hope slavery may not prove to be. But certainly we do differ very widely on that, unless I greatly misunderstand you. You say that the Afri- can is not worsted but bettered by being a slave. I grant that he may be better fed and clothed, and may better observe what civil order his masters may desire; but who, tell me, gave any man the right to enslave another man of whatever color? Surely not God, who made men in his own image, with whom image is more than symmetrical resem- blance, having much of spirit in it. Hence God never en- slaved any one or oppressed any man, but slavery and op- pression came about by the act of grasping, wretched men with the spirit of Cain or the devil in them. "If no one else objects to slavery, and if the African him- self should not, by reason of being better fed and cared for, I do, for myself and for the hundreds of thousands of men who labor for themselves and their families. Thousands of them I have opportunities of seeing and being with from day to day in my occupation, and hearing the stories of their struggles for life and the hard living they and their families grind and groan under in their sorrow. To my mind this should bring sympathy and help from any fair-minded man. 368 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to relieve suffering that would wrench tears almost from a heart of stone. Their wages are cut in two by millions, their families and dear ones suffer and strive on from day to day with half of what they earn through their contending against slave labor and other lordly oppressions, that fatten the oppressors on the blood and wages of the poor. "1 denounce slavery as a greater curse to the white or European races than to the black man, if there is difference. I do not assume to have better knowledge of law, or as good, nor of precedent, or to be particularly informed on the laws, customs, and practices of the nations which have or have not tolerated human slavery, but it seems that all of them have been so bad, that a thousand have passed out of existence, and no more than four or five of the principal nations now exist. Nor do I presume to have special information on the subject beyond what was brought out in schools, and in what was called the Wilberforce-Canning movement, for the abo- lition of slavery in all the British Colonies. That I did con- sider and understand until 1833, when Britain did abolish human slavery in all her dominions, very much to her credit as a nation, in my opinion, and much more to the credit of the brave, indefatigable men who carried on the contest against unexpected opposition of Church and conservatism from top to bottom. But still undismayed and undaunted by the thousands of difficulties that seemed insurmountable, they persevered in their valiant struggle, and finally won, '"Slavery does not, as such, exist in any State in Europe ; yet I regret and I am free to admit that servitude almost akin to it in some localities does; but this, rather than being advanced as a reason for the existence of slavery or servitude of any kind in a free Republic, should be valid reason for its extirpation, because the rights of men can no better sur- vive such S3^stems in a Eepublic than in a monarchy. "You surely comprehend that slavery and the enforced labor of the slave is as great a wrong and injustice against THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 369 those whose labor is partly or entirely degraded in the de- stroying competition. Three million slaves in this country is a terrible gorge, or overswelling of the labor supply. It puts eighty per cent of these men, women, and children, fed and housed like animals, in direct competition with free labor; whereas under ordinary civilization no more than thirty per cent should be put at men's labor. '"'I am quite willing to concede that Europe is full of oppressive systems of labor and servitude. Plans, customs, and permitted agreements surfeit and over-supply the de- mand for labor. Over hours, Sunday work, schemes that take women and children into the labor of life and industries, compete with, depress, and in many cases obliterate living wages. These are the schemes of Cain, or his successors, who want, and in our human progress often get, their brother's labor. "You are seriously at fault, or I must be, in your holding that the Constitution of the United States tolerates or sus- tains human slavery. I have been informed that not until very recently has any man in this country made claim that slavery existed by other than State authority. In no word or line of the Constitution is a man held or bound to slavery or service of any kind, hence being without a national statute that makes a man a slave, we are as civilized people, and all other English-speaking peoples, under the operation of what is known as the common law of England. "On this Chief-Justice Lord Mansfield said in 1773: 'The power of the master over his slave has been extremely dif- ferent in different countries. The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasions, and time itself from where it was created are erased from memory. It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may fol- 24 k 370 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. low this decision, I can not say this case is allowed or ap- proved by the law of England, and therefore the black man must be discharged.' " Browne continued: '^I feel sure that you will not in your present equivocal relation to slavery, like to answer whether there is better authority for enslaving a man under our American Constitution than there is under British law. I am sure that you can not believe there is; hence under Mansfield's decision, which is just and righteous and still unquestioned and unreversed, slavery can and should be re- stricted to the States alone where it exists under a posi- tive law. "In that way we might hope for its ultimate extinction; but as sure as it is extended, by the admission of Texas where it now exists, so sure has the war between slavery and freedom begun; because any man with the experience, judgment, reason, and a general fitness of things, knows that the declaration of war now being promulgated is as much, if not more, against free men, free States, and free Territories, as it is against Mexico. "Eegarding my personal welfare and safety, I am grate- ful for your friendly sympathy and have no doubt of your sincerity; but I am in no danger at present, nor do I believe that you are, or will be, so long as jou adhere to yoiir present beliefs. But this vrill all change as the conflict deepens, and you will understand that I do not pretend to see danger to life or limb; but if j'-ou faithfully represent the people of your free State, as I fully believe you will when the crashing emergency comes, regardless of all that you have done and will do for this hideous slave monster, now seated in power, it will turn on and rend 3''ou, beggar and disgrace you as far as it can, even as much as talented, but misguided Wolsey was disgraced by his hellish master." In this way the conversation closed. Browne lived only to see the Mexican territory taken and Taylor elected in the THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 371 fall of 1848. Then his brave spirit went over the border. Often we thought that if he had lived Douglas would not have served the slave power so much, nor so long, for they were faithful friends, and Judge Douglas showed deep con- viction in the closing of this last friendly but very emphatic discussion. We honor the father as such as an outspoken friend of freedom when there were so few holding his belief that were brave enough to avow it in the slave State of Mis- souri, or the worse slavery-ridden, as far as opinion could go, town of Springfield. It took almost a generation to arouse them, so that very few of that day are entitled to the credit of doing all that was possible in the cause of human liberty. It is true that Douglas served the slave power for a time as his party dictated, for which he was lashed over and over by political opponents and envious detractors, many of whom served it as well as they could. But, as he said in his con- versation with Browne, his path of duty and work ahead was clear, as he could only go with his party, or be a cast-off leader. If he had done otherwise no one could have done better, and, as it proved, nothing like so well. If he had boldly declared himself against the slave-leaders' plans even as early as 1853-54, Atchison, of Missouri, would have suc- ceeded him two or three years before he did, with increased powers for mischief and the demoralization of the parties and people of the free States. If this had been done before the Democratic party dis- ruption, which was Jefferson Davis's strong desire, then the loyal part of the party would not have been left in the con- dition for action, that Douglas, Logan, McClernand, Frank Blair, and other thousands like them, kept it in, with its voting strength of about one and a half million votes, who joined as heartily in saving the Union under Lincoln, as the other one million eight hundred thousand voters did in direct support and voting for Lincoln. Thus under Douglas's 372 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. leadership, much as many zealous Union-loving men dreaded the course he had taken, the two strongest forces in the Nation were blended into a body of invincible men, number- ing about three millions, who could and did save their coun- try. Nearly all of them who could bear arms had to do it, and over twenty out of every thirty of them were required to serve and rescue the Nation in the war for the Union. It has been a custom of late years to write of Douglas disparagingly, as some writers are able to do, regardless of facts and sometimes of the truth, when necessarily the sub- jects of his beliefs, acts, and course of conduct are of the highest importance, in order that we may gain a correct and intelligent understanding of the peril and danger that sur- rounded him through his hard-held and difficult leadership. "WTien the truth is better understood by our intelligent, country-loving people, it will be known that he and Lincoln, although political adversaries for their life-time, understood each other perfectly, and never for a moment doubted the honesty and patriotism of each other. It was determined in higher courts than ever graced this earth, that one would lead one party, and that the other would also lead a party, and that in God's good time and way a purified, united peo- ple would save the land under these leaders. They were antagonists, yet they were friends. One was the necessity of the other; one could not have been as he was without the other, and the two united made the greatest forward movement for freedom for a full hundred years, Douglas in holding power and position in his party, and protecting himself against assaults, could have done no less to remain a great leader. The Brownes, father and son, always positively disagreed with him on the slavery ques- tion, and as positively declared their belief to him, but recognized the dangerous party position he had to hold, or be crushed like Benton and many others. In our situation and relations with them, we surely had THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 373 opportunities of learning the strength, character, and abil- ities of these great American leaders. The well-defined pur- pose is and has been to use the facts and the knowledge fairly and impartially, further to illustrate the lives of these eminent men. They were both marvelous, great-souled, strong men. They lived above the petty disputes and de- tractions of one or the other, often made by hasty and in- discreet friends, and these seem to be about all the knowl- edge and information some writers ever gained of them and the heroic work of their lives. These conversations have been given at some length and the personal relations made, that we might better illustrate the strength and growth of the slave power that dominated, misguided, and deceived the unsuspecting people and Nation for so long a jieriod. Some time in the forties, before the election of Polk in 1844, the entire South was consolidated and brought to a condition where its mighty force could be held as a composite, manageable body, wholly under its chosen leaders. It was a well-organized alliance, made up of men in all parties, but always united in the interests of slavery and its extension. They determined to sustain and uphold it in every way, extend it in peaceful or, if neces- sary, in aggressive methods. Slavery had become an im- mensely profitable system, reaching to hundreds of millions of profits annually, as previously mentioned. It had become an altogether different system from what it was to the founders of the Republic, who tolerated it because it had been fastened upon them without their consent, by the "commercial men of that day," part of whom at least fol- lowed the business of "slave-traders." The African slave-trade was becoming extinct when Columbus discovered America, Soon after some native In- dians were shipped to Spain as slaves in 1495. Columbus had no scruples on the subject. He had been at one time engaged in shipping slaves for Portugal, taking large num- 374 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. bers of free Negroes, who were first "indentured for their shipping^' from the Barbary coast to Europe, where they were reduced to slavery, but without success, as its different countries were overstocked with cheap labor. As a result, no nation of Europe took to the system, for its cheap home labor prevented its adoption, and the little attempted in the beginning soon died out. Slavery existed in Mexico and some other Central American countries on their discovery. The desire of the Spaniards for labor enterprises, the in- ability of the natives for the work of the Europeans, and the demand for greatly-increased industrial operations under the Spanish occupation, soon led to the bringing of large numbers of Negroes to the New World. The Negroes were equal to the work, and prospered under it. Ferdinand and Isabella both feared they were sending too many, but soon afterwards Charles V granted the same privileges to some Fleming and Holland cruisers, who were as thrifty man-stealers as ever scoured the Congo coast. From this time forward the slave-trade prospered. The request of Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the Indies was supported by the humane and venerable Las Casas and almost all of the Eomish priests, who did so to prevent the extinction of the natives. They were dying by thousands, perishing in many ways rather than suffering themselves to be reduced to slavery, to which the blacks made little ob- jection. The blacks were soon much preferred, because the labor of one man was usually equal to that of four or five natives. The African slave-trade rapidly grew to be an important commerce. England took part in it as early as 1562, though previously to that some Negroes had been landed or sold in their ships as cargoes; but from this period English slave- traders, the most daring traffickers on the ocean, went regu- larly into the business of helping supply the American de- mand. Queen Elizabeth was believed to have shared in the THE MEN OF HIS TIME, 375 profits with Admiral Hawkins, one of the first slave-traders. Her grasping avarice and love of mone}' were equal to such means, or even more questionable methods of amassing the fortune she left. The English proved to be the most active, energetic, and also the most cruel, of all who ever engaged in the nefarious trade. The Stuart kings, Charles II and James II, were both members of companies which regularly carried on the trade, through which both of them made large profits for the extravagant expenditures of the first, and the hoarded savings of the more careful and avaricious James. After the accession of Cromwell as Lord Protector the trade was thrown open to all. Again, after the restoration of Charles II, and for a long period, the Koyal African Com- pany received aid and protection from Parliament. Later a number of companies were organized, so that in 1713 three English companies secured an agreement with the Spanish Government to furnish their colonies with Negro slaves for a period of thirty years. Others, however, were engaged in human traffic. Of them all, it was always conceded that the English were the most daring and venturesome in gathering the Negroes, and the most brutal and cruel of all the monsters who dealt in men. Nevertheless, they were much more active and car- ried more Negroes to the American continent than all the other European nations. The English, Dutch, French, and Portuguese were all in the business in about the order named. The first slaves brought and sold in the territory of the L^nited States were twenty Negroes, conveyed in a Flem- ish cruiser to Jamestown, Va., in 1619, the year before the landing of the Pilgrims on the barren coast of Massachu- setts. Cotton was soon discovered to be a prolific and profit- able plant, and slavery was instituted up and down the en- tire coast-line to promote the culture of cotton as far north as Virginia, and tobacco and hemp as far north as Massa- 376 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. chusetts, with slavery firmly established in all the Colonies from about 1619 to 1650. Indians were enslaved as well as Negroes ; but in very few instances could they be made to earn the cost of subsistence. The son of King Philip, the Massachusetts warrior, was among those enslaved; but, being no more tractable and much more indolent than the others, he was released, and the attempt was soon abandoned throughout the Colonies. The slave-trade between Africa and the Indies and the Eng- lish colonies was actively carried on until the planters were fully supplied with all the slaves they would purchase. Some of the Colonies were decidedly opposed to the intro- duction of the Xegroes and the entire system of bondage; but as the British Government sustained and supported it, the opposition soon subsided. About 1786, under the leadership of Granville Sharpe, William Wilberforce, Clarkson, Canning, and all the Quakers, they entered into a determined movement for the abolition of all forms of human slaverv in all the Colonies. It was car- ried on under many discouragements and disappointments, until it was finally agreed to as a law, August 28, 1833, when more than twelve millions of slaves were emancipated in the colonies and dependencies of Great Britain. France virtually abolished slavery by the act of free citizenship to all, regardless of race or color, in 1791, during the blood- iest days of the Eevolution. In 1776 the American Continental Congress resolved that no more slaves should be imported; but under the Constitution, in 1788, the time for the abolition of the slave- trade was extended to 1808. This was the first and one of the most unrighteous concessions made to the slave-traders and to the planters and slave-holders of the cotton States. The concession was agreed to under duress of the well-di- rected threats that, if it was not made, the slave-traders would prevent the adoption of the Constitution or any other THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 377 form of National Government more binding than the Ar- ticles of Confederation, which were so loosely drawn and constructed that many of the States were claiming preroga- tives of nationality under them, to avoid which and found and institute a Government with all the functions and powers of nationality, a compromise was made with these trading man-stealers, permitting them to continue their nefarious business for twenty long years. The wise and able men of that day, many of whom were strong in anti-slavery beliefs — like Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Randolph, and a thousand others — agreed to sub- mit for the long period of time to the horrors of this execrable slave-trade, in order that the greater achieve- ment — the founding of the Nation on sound and lasting principles — might be accomplished. The incident is an all-sufficient one to fix the time of the first exacting demand of the slave-power, which, in agreeing to become part of the Nation, reserved the author- ity, so far as the Government was concerned, to steal one or more millions of Africans, rob them of their freedom, and consign them to slavery, which business they were licensed to conduct on the high seas for twenty years. After a long dispute in France, slavery was again abol- ished in all the French Colonies during the reign of Louis Philippe, in 1848, without remuneration to the slave-owners. Sweden abolished slavery in 1846-47, Denmark in 1848, and the Netherlands in 1862. Spain agreed, in 1814, to abolish the slave-trade in 1820. The Netherlands abolished it in 1818. Brazil agreed to do so in 1826, but did not. In the United States it was prohibited by law from 1808. In 1820 an act of Congress declared the slave-trade to be piracy. However, no conviction was made under the law until No- vember, 1861, when Nathaniel Gordon, master of the Eric, was convicted and executed in New York. This was the only conviction. 378 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. It was the current belief that the law had been evaded and violated many times over up to that period. These en- actments did not arrest a traffic so profitable that ships with all they contained were quite often captured, and more often sunk with all the chained Negroes aboard to avoid capture; and still the traders were making fortunes for themselves and their better-concealed abettors. The only way found for the abolition of this wretchedly-profitable trade in men was, and still remains, in the maintenance of. ocean fleets along the coasts of Africa by Great Britain and the United States. Since the abolition of slavery on all the American continent there has been no trading in slaves for them; but the business of slave-catching in Cen- tral Africa is still carried on by a few wretches, who are still engaged in slipping along the African coast as they can when not observed. They hover mostly around the Barbary States and further east on the Mediterranean Sea, where their captured Negroes are clandestinely sold to some Asiatic countries. The fleets are still necessary, and must be maintained. Thus slavery and the slave-trade have perished under the hammering progress and the tremendous blows of a better civilization, but not until it cost to nations and people, in some form, two or three dollars for every one gained as profit out of the unrighteous business. Besides there has been a loss of life and health for its suppression so appalling, distressing, and full of woe that the mind in- stinctivelv shrinks from its count or calculation. Nations have perished, one after another, for less cause than per- mitting so great a wrong as slavery to exist; and as these are passing into oblivion, nations should arise that will abolish all the abominations of human oppression in what- ever form. If they do not, they will perish, as God designs they shall. The number of persons taken from Africa and enslaved — THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 379 from the beginning of the man-stealing trade, about 1444, to the time of the abolition of slavery in the United States and Brazil — is put, by the best-informed authorities, at the enormous aggregate of forty millions of people, about equal in number to the entire population of France or Germany. If the number had been equally spread over the four hun- dred years, it would have been one hundred thousand per annum for the period; but there Avas no regularity in the number taken. For the first eight}'^ years the business, carried on mainly by the Portuguese and Dutch, was precarious, hazardous, and full of danger; not because of fleets chasing the slav- ers down, but because of the rude condition of the shipping and commerce of the time, when, in the storm, through the little known-of coasts and reefs and cross winds and currents, man}^ a bark or cruiser went down with all on board; so that during the long period of over half a cen- tury not more than thirty thousand were taken up to 1493, when America was discovered, and the new and immense territories were opened to the introduction of slavery. Af- ricans were preferably selected because they were more tractable and made better laborers than the red and yellow races. The discovery of America, with its vast and fertile and temperate, as well as tropical, regions, opened up the equiva- lent of three continents for the spread of the slave-system. All of commercial Europe entered into the enormously profitable business of the slave-trade. Nations, companies, and individuals carried it on prosperously for three cen- turies or more. In place of spreading the gospel of the Master and the doctrine of the equality of men all over the earth, about every kingdom, prince, potentate, or power in Europe — the civilized and enlightened world, as it then existed — were engaged in the lucrative occupation of man- stealing in Africa and various schemes of plunder in the 380 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. name of commerce against all the weaker and helpless peoples of the earth. The settlement and cultivation of the West Indies and contiguous territory greatly increased the production of the rich tropical fruits, and cheapened and widened the de- mand for them. In doing so it opened new regions for the extension and employment of slave-labor. African slaves were, however, taken and dispersed all over Europe, as we have related. France, Spain, and Portugal held a few, as well as England. In that country it was estimated that as many as fifteen thousand were held at the time of Lord Mansfield's decision in 1772, heretofore quoted by Nimmo Browne. This number were not liberated by the decision, as they should have been, but were hurriedly era- barked and shipped as so many cattle to the American Col- onies. The number of slaves imported from African shores into what became the territory of the United States, mainly by British and Dutch slavers, under the most careful and ac- curate enumeration possible, was three hundred thousand in 1776, at the time of our Declaration of Independence. In 1790, by the first census, the slaves numbered 687,897 in the United States. All the States, except Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a part, held some slaves: Vermont only a few, seventeen; New Hampshire only a hundred and fifty-eight. At the next census, in 1800, the slave popula- tion increased to 893,041. At this time Vermont had abolished slavery, and freed her seventeen, and New Hampshire had only eight slaves left. At the next census (1810) there were 1,191,364. At this time there were no slaves in Massachusetts, New Hamp- shire, or Vermont, of the original Colonies, and Ohio had been admitted without slavery. This shows that during the twenty years' time demanded by the slave-leaders for the slave-trade, from 1788 to 1808, the number of slaves had THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 381 almost doubled — to be exact, there had been an increase of 503,647, representing a value, at the low price of a hundred dollars apiece, of over fifty million dollars, and as much in the profits of the slave-owners every year. These statistics are given for the purpose, and should be carefully considered, that we may know and understand the power, force, and influence of a system so widespread and profitable. There was much more behind slavery to sustain and support it than sentiment or patriotic attachment to their section. There was the insatiable desire, as rife and dominant now as then, to make a living and amass a fortune out of other men's labor. In the fourth census, of 1830, there were 1,538,022 slaves; in the fifth, in 1830, 2,009,043; in the sixth, in 1840, 2,487,455; in the seventh, in 1850, 3,204,313; and in the eighth, in 1860, 3,953,760. The senti- ment in all the Colonies was strongly against slavery in the beginning, and it would never have been introduced into several of them but for ihc non-resident owners of large land-grants and concessions. They introduced Negro labor as the cheapest that could be employed; and from this start the planters took up the system, mainly for the culti- vation of tobacco in Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, further extending it in the production of cotton when the cultivation of that plant became one of the principal in- dustries of Southern Virginia and all the Colonies south of it, during the eighteenth century. However, slavery received its greatest impulse and re- markable progress as a labor system from Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin, which will be taken up later. The climate of the Northern States was never so well adapted and agreeable to the Negroes as the milder, more genial South. Many of them sickened and died in the North- ern latitudes from pulmonary complaints, particularly those lately stolen from Africa. So, too, it was more expensive to clothe and subsist them in the North. Under these diffi- 382 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. culties the traders, dealers, and planters crowded them into the milder climate and healthier region, where shelter, cloth- ing, and subsistence were the cheapest, where the climate most nearly fitted them, and where vast, uncultivated re- gions were open for the employment of their unskilled labor. There was, too, at the time, a stronger feeling against slavery, as a system of forced labor, that was wrong in it- self, in the Puritan settlements of New England, than in the more cavalier civilization of the South. The Quakers were uncompromisingly against it from its inception, and denounced it as an unqualified wrong and injustice. This was about the condition up to the struggle for and achieve- ment of independence. Nevertheless, the wise and eminent leaders who formed the Government were, with all else, the most untiring, zealous, and persevering anti-slavery men of their time, and adopted what was, in their judgment, the best plan for its ultimate extinction, freeing their own slaves, insisting on this as an example, and prohibiting the extension of it into any of the territory belonging to the new Nation. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Jay, John Adams, Samuel Randolph, Madison, Patrick Henry, and a thousand devoted leaders in almost every Colony, were men of high and pronounced ability, possessing light and knowl- edge in all human affairs, honesty, devotion, and love of right and justice, such as no other body of men ever exhib- ited on the earth, in their work of the founding and building the new Nation. To their honor it should ever be remem- bered that those from the chivalrous settlements of Mary- land and Virginia were more determined and persistent, if there was difference, in framing plans for the abolition of the evil system, as they unhesitatingly called it, than those from the more Northern Colonies. It was an evil, a real one, to those great statesmen — THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 383 Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Henry, and those with them — who Avere in the honest work of founding a Govern- ment for the defense and protection of the rights of men. To Franklin, Hamilton, Jay, Livingston, the Adamses, and others, it was no less an evil, but a more remote one. Their -Colonies had abolished it, and they fully expected that the more southern ones would. It seemed to them, then, only a local institution, and they felt certain that it was wise to leave it to the wisdom and management of the men of the South, the leaders we have named, in whom they could have no less than full confidence. However, on the slave-trade they were more firm, and would agree to nothing less than the fixing a time when it must cease. If they had been more inquisitive, and had taken the views, not of the wise men who were leading Southern sentiment, but the more numerous body of incon- spicuous citizens, who were demanding the longest period they could obtain for the continuation of their well-known piratical slave-trade, they would have found that the com- bined power and influence of the slave-owners was the strongest of all political ideas in the South, and that the truly anti-slavery men of the South were powerless against them whenever they pleased to assert themselves, and that there were the same good reasons for fixing a date for the extinction of slavery in the States that there was for the termination of the iniquitous traffic. But it might not have been wise to attempt more than they did at the time. The States might have divided, and become, not a nation, but victims of European control for another century. God directed the founders, and they made and left us a nation of free people. Vermont v,^as the first of the Colonies to abolish slavery, which it did in 1777, before the close of the Revolutionary War. Pennsylvania provided, in 1780, for gradual emanci- pation of her slaves. Only sixty-four were living in 18-10, 384 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. being the remnant of 3,737. The Supreme Court of Massa- chusetts declared that the State Constitution, adopted in 1780, abolished slavery, as provided in the instrument. Rhode Island adopted gradual emancipation, and had only five slaves left in 1840. Connecticut did likewise, having only seventeen, reduced from 2,759 in 1790. New York passed a gradual emancipation act in 1799, when there were something over 30,000 in the State, affirming it in 1817 by declaring that all slaves should be free on July 4, 1837. New Jersey passed the act for emancipation very much like New York, in 1804, when her slaves numbered 11,433. By gradual emancipation the number was reduced, so that only 236 were living in 1850; and this completes the record of the States that abolished slavery before 1860. The Jews, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity made slaves of captives taken in war or by conquest, regardless of race, color, or intelligence, holding them either for ransom or servitude. The slavery and servitude which most of them instituted was often an amelioration of the horrid cruelty of maiming, blinding, and slaughtering them. But American slavery was instituted in nothing better or braver than theft, without pretense or cause against the black man, and with no better purpose than selling the hunted and captured Africans to the high- est bidder. The only incentive was the money that could be made out of their labor under the cheapest form of a well-fed animal existence. There was neither national cause nor personal enmity to induce the waging of war against them; for the blacks were helpless, untrained savages, and the whole business of slave-stealing and slave-catching, from beginning to end, had nothing in it to inspire a rude man's ambition. At no time in its progress did it ever rise above the coarse and dull dead level of theft, plunder, and murder, stealing on THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 385 the high seas, and drowning men sometimes by the cargo. The Barbary States, in close proximity to some wild tribes, carried on the trade; bnt Europe very effectually suppressed it in the early years of this century with the cordial co- operation of a naval fleet sent thither by President Jef- ferson. 25 CHAPTER XYII. WHITE slavery has always been an intolerant subject to the Anglo-Saxon peoples the world over, and to ours as much so, even to the avowed supporters of the black men's bondage. However, the miscegenation and corruption of races under our Southern slave-system was indeed becoming frightful, especially in our larger cities, South or ISTorth. One of the plainest and most instructive examples of the bad effects of race-mixing to body and character was found in a small factory town in Tennessee, near the Alabama line, which we visited and made an exami- nation of in the time of the Civil War. There were about five hundred workers in the cotton fac- tory, all slaves, except the two or three managers and over- seers and four or five guards. Of the five hundred, about twenty were pure African. Of the remainder, of mixed blood, many were young girls, bearing children at twelve to fourteen years of age. The average race mixture, as well as we could ascertain with the help of the physician and the hospital attendants, was seven-tenths white, three- tenths African. They were a yellowish, creamy-skinned, dark, but almost straight-haired, dark-eyed, dwarfed, skele- ton-looking, constitutionally diseased, mongrel mixture of children, and less than half-developed men and women. There were forty consumptives in the hospital, and only three or four of the mixed race were over forty years of age. They were intellectually as stupid and degenerate as they were physically inferior, and decaying with perma- nently-fixed constitutional diseases. We heard of similar 386 THE MEX OF NTS TIME. 387 instances of race and social degeneration on some large plan- tations and in the larger cities, and saw individual cases; but nothing ever equaled the little factory village where prevailing diseases and miscegenation were exterminating the victims of lust and slavery. It was in itself one of the most positive and certain condemnations against the sys- tem that any of us had ever seen. Notwithstanding the deep feeling against white slavery before the war, there seemed little S3^mpathy for the mixed mulattoes, quadroons, and bleached-out octoroons, who were as firmly held in bondage, even when they were the children of slaveholders, as the newest arrivals from Senegambia or the Congo. In the free States the same spirit generally pre- vailed. The caste discrimination against the blacks and the lightest-tinged African was so predominant that in Ver- mont only was a black man, or any offspring of the race, held to be the equal before the law. They were more com- pletely isolated, socially, than the Indian or the Chinese in almost every part of the country. The unreasoning preju- dices against the race are the unexpunged consequences of four hundred years of conquest and rapacity. Our human civilization, which has been, of all things, the most inhuman, has almost exterminated the race of Indians that were brave enough to fight for their lands and liberty, and en- slaved the Africans, who have been too docile and too servile to contend for theirs. The founders of the Nation were wise and foresighted in many things, but they did not realize all the evil that hirked in the slave-system. They shrank back from the open contest with it. Public opinion all over the world was then changing and growing rapidly against any form of human bondage. European monarchies were being com- pelled by the mighty forces of the people to take some recognition of the outraged rights of man, enough so to abolish slavery and all entailed servitude. 388 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The fathers conceded as little to slavery as they could. They made nothing of record but the indirect enumeration that permitted a representation of "three-fifths of all oth- ers;" but these were to count as potently in legal power and privilege as if they had been called "slaves,"' and the other more obnoxious provision, that "fugitives from labor or service shall be returned." On these slender, undefined foundations slavery became nationalized by the Dred Scott decision in 1857 of our Supreme Court, or as much so as the dictum of a court makes law. They feared the encounter with slavery direct, and, as men are doing with lesser evils, and have done from the beginnings of civilization, they first permitted it to exist, then to encroach and grow to such power and strength that the liberties of peoples and the life of the Nation came near to going down in the ruin. They encouraged societies formed to help and promote the gradual emancipation of the slaves in every part of the country. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which was organized in 1775, continued actively at work until slavery went down in the wreckage and ruin of war. Benjamin Franklin was its first president, and Benjamin Eush was its first secretary. It sent a memo- rial to Congress in 1790, signed by both, asking Congress to "devise means for removing the inconsistency of slavery from the American people; further, to step to the very verge of its power for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our fellow-men." In 1785 the New York Manumission Society was formed. John Jay was its first president, and Alexander Hamilton was his successor. So- cieties of similar kind and character were formed in Con- necticut, Ehode Island, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Some of these exerted considerable influence, particularly in Rhode Island and Connecticut, in the early extirpation of slavery in their States. The admission of Missouri as a slave State was the first THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 389 considerable victory of the slave-power after securing the extension of the slave-trade at the adoption of the Consti- tution and the Louisiana and Florida Purchases. It was an aggressive act that aroused the anti-slavery people all over the country. It was evidence of the power of the propaganda and what might be expected of it. Much has been written of the broken promises and betrayal in the re- peal of Missouri Compromise afterwards, and it was surely a breach of plighted faith on the part of the South; but it was nothing like so great a wrong as it was at first to plant slavery in Missouri, in the center of the Continent. With its natural, its constructed, and possible lines of travel, commerce, and communication, this compromise put slavery in a situation where it became more detrimental and in- jurious to free labor and free institutions than in any other State in the Union. Its admission was conclusive evidence that the projectors of slave-labor were not willing to confine their system to any restriction which they could remove. It was a direct act of putting slavery in competition with free labor in the rapidly-developing Western part of the country. It was putting slave-labor far north of the line for the pro- duction of rice, sugar, or cotton, in the heart of the Mis- sissippi Yalley, to antagonize free labor as far as possible in the production of cattle, horses, mules, sheep, and hogs, and the grain on which these animals were grown and pro- pared for market. It was putting slave-labor north of any line of latitude that had ever been profitable, and where it would come in direct competition and antagonism with the great body of farmers then rapidly emigrating westward. It was the strongest possible movement that could have been made for the increase of political power, and it was the more determined, for there were at that time large areas of unused and uncultivated territory in all the States of the Lower ^Mississippi Valley, where slave-labor and living were 390 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, more congenial and much more profitable. The movement to advance slavery into Missouri was the strongest plan to develop the slave-masters' power, which they accomplished under their old threat to destroy the Union, as following their first threat, not to permit its formation under the Constitution unless their demand for equal power and terri- tory was satisfied. Under this procedure, mild slaveholders, like Clay, compromised with, or, more truthfully, gave them all they desired, and fixed them more firmly in power in the Nation than they had ever been. It was the entering weapon that penetrated deep into the vitals of the Nation, and gave them the opportunity for gaining the National ascendenc3% which they firmly held over forty years. The opposition to this strongly-held and rigidly-governed sys- tem, and its encroachments, was all embraced in individual or local expression, without general organization or unity of action, until the insurrection in 1861. The slave-propa- ganda was a well-organized, compact body of men, fully un- derstanding their subject and each other, and with means of concentration and singleness of purpose from the time of the foundation of the Government, and even before, through the control which the slave-traders had exercised for four centuries. After the Missouri settlement and admission the Nation quieted down to a state of listlessness and neglect respect- ing slavery. It seemed to be taken for granted that no further opposition could be made; and the country drifted into submission to what most of them believed to be flagrant injustice, because they were without the means of success- fully opposing it at the time. They were building a new Nation. They were overwhelmed with the immensity of the labor and hardships in founding the great States of the Upper Mississippi Valley, whose strength and resources were eventually to be called into requisition to destroy the system that had been feared and tolerated for centuries. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 391 For years following there was little of expressed opinion against slavery, so little that the Southerners had reason to believe they had overcome all active opposition. Dur- ing this time it came to be taught through the press, the pulpit, and the forum, not that slavery was a crying and deadly evil which should be abolished, but that all agita- tion of the subject was wrong, hurtful, and dangerous. And the sentiment prevailed. The Whig and Democratic par- ties swallowed the monster, and regularly denounced "Aboli- tionists" as fanatics, disturbers of the peace, and other vile names, and as persons who would deliberately interfere with the settled institutions of the Southern States, and conspire for the murder of their citizens. The spirit and memory of the founders of the Nation had passed away, and the powers of the devil and the slave- traders were teaching morals, political ethics, and the road to prosperous Government to the free Republic that, on a time, held that God created all men "free and equal." After the admission of Missouri, the press mainly gave up the contest — that is, quieted down to submission and agree- ment that one-half of the country should be given to slav- ery, that the contest between free and slave systems of labor should be conducted with equal chances for either side; that slavery must not be talked about or discussed or writ- ten about, for that would be unnecessary agitation, and that it must be given equal territory for expansion. Ac- cordingly half the National domain, or more, and as many slave as free States, to preserve the equilibrium of power, were given, and, with the suppression of free speech, it be- came possible and even popular to elect, from Northern States, "dough-faces," who served the slave-power to the full extent of their slender capacities. Benjamin Lundy, a good old (Quaker, started his Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore in 1821, and kept it going as well as he could by publishing it in several cities. 392 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and firing it into the face of the slave-power and into the minds of the people with all the ability, ingenuity, and power that the good old man possessed. He had at least the gift of continuance and the virtue of not letting all opposition to the behests of slavery die out in as small a fight as the Missouri contest. He traveled all over the country, and although his paper's circulation ran below a thousand sometimes, he kept his Genius above M^ater, and gloriously pounded awa}^ against slavery alone for ten long years. In January, 1831, he united his efforts and his circulation with William Lloyd Garrison, M^ho then started the Liberator in Boston. From this time forward the sounding hammer-beats and the roaring blasts of a free and unsubsidized press rang out in regular succession against the iniquity and godless- ness of slavery. There was a freshness and independence about them that carried conviction to the minds of men so fast that the free States became a sea of agitation, and Abolitionists were made in such countless thousands that the majority of the people in many States and localities became dangerous agitators. These men — good old Ben Lundy, with his thousand subscribers, and the lightning- tongued Garrison, that gained the world for his audience — rang out the voice of a free press against slavery until it writhed in a nation's agony and blood, and went out forever. Let us put in a milestone for the good old Ben Lundy and the better-remembered trumpeter of the Liberator, who maintained the assault and stood in the ranks until all men w'ere free. They accepted the definition of slavery taken from the slave-codes of the several slave States, which were substantiall}' the same in all, that "slaves are chattels personal in the hands of their owners and possessors to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever." Garrison boldly asserted that slaveholding was a sin against God and a crime against humanity, and that immediate emanci- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 393 patioii was the right of every slave and the duty of every master. In Boston, January 1, 1832, the first society on this basis was organized, twelve leading citizens being present at the organization. Arnold Buffura, a Quaker friend of Lundy's, was its first president. In December, 1833, the American Anti-slavery Society was formed in Philadelphia. Arthur Tappan was its first president. This Society had several auxiliaries, and held and firmly expressed the belief that Congress had no right to abolish slavery in the slave States, and asked for no action on the part of the National Government that had not been agreed to as Constitutional by the leading men in all parties in all the States. They declared all laws recognizing or admitting the right of slavery to be, "loefore God, null and void." They advised the slaves to use no carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage, and agreed themselves that their opposition should be such only as offering moral purity for moral corruption, the destruction of error by the potency of truth, and the abolition of slaverj'' by the spirit of repentance. By means of their teachings, lectures, documents, meetings, and pe- titions to Congress, these societies stirred up an interest among the people, which was taken up in public meetings among religious sects and Churches, until it raised an excite- ment on the question such as the country had never known or experienced, but which would have been a mere prelude had the people really understood the plans and purposes of the slave-power. These societies were nearly all opposed to the formation of any anti-slavery political party, and relied on their work, which was all right in its way, to effect a revolution in the members of all parties. In this they greatly underestimated the strength, coherence, and solidarity of the slave regime, which, like all the powers of evil before and since, kept its mailed hand on every society, Church, or person over 394 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Avhich it could exercise direct or indirect control. Nothing less than a well-organized political party, in which questions of wrong can be considered and discussed before the whole body of the people, could or ever can meet and contend with as formidable an evil as slavery. Differences of opinion, which were almost certain to come from the beginning, weakened the anti-slavery socie- ties. In one way, however, they accomplished great good, by pointing the way to social and political revolution. The free discussion of the slavery question resulted in the for- mation of new parties ; for it was plump against the declara- tions and pronunciamentos of the Whig and Democratic parties, which denounced anti-slavery discussion and anti- slavery people as '"'dangerous agitators and disturbers of the public peace;" but the issue was raised. One of the most imj^ortant and significant results of the slavery discussion and agitation was the division of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the most numerous, persever- ing, westward-pushing, and pioneer-extending of all the Protestant denominations. The Church, in General Con- ference, decided against slavery in 1844. The members of the Southern section, embracing all the slave States, with- drew, and established a Church organization without dis- crimination against slaveholders or slaveholding. The Su- preme Court of the United States, on application, ratified the separation, and ordered a division of the property. The example was pernicious, and foreshadowed to the slave- power the manner of withdrawal and separation of the slave States from the Union, with all the territory they could possess or control, in the event of losing their National ascendency. At that time it was all-powerful, when the aggressions for slavery extension were under full headway under the Tyler and Polk Administrations. A little later a movement similar to the above was made on the part of the Southern Presbyterians, who met at THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 396 Knoxville, Tenn., April 2, 1858, and organized a separate Southern body of that Church. Hence the anti-slavery societies defied the dicta of the parties, took off the gag, and unlocked the tongues of the people. This is as it should be where the people are right- fully entitled to discuss publicly all moral, political, and re- ligious subjects. It is distressing that reforms so often come as did the upheaval and destruction of slavery; but if it can no other way, it is a thousand times better to die contending for liberty, equality, and freedom of speech than to live and suffer under the bondage or oppression of cruel men. In 1840 the Liberty party was formed, and, although small in number, the members were zealous and earnest, and their little party thrived and grew stronger in every contest. It paid no more attention to defeat than John Quincy Adams did in his twenty years' struggle, on the floor of the House of Eepresentatives, for the right of peti- tion, who, in achieving the right for which he so manfully contended, won about the first clear victory against slavery. After the right of petition was won, the societies were or- ganized. The subject of human slavery was discussed and rediscussed, and the discussion and agitation spread. Con- gress was petitioned and repetitioned. Garrison sounded the tocsin, if not of war, of no compromise with slavery. The Liberty party was started in the conflict. It expected nothing, but won the respect of mankind for its courage, and polled 7,609 very independent votes for James G. Birney. It grew and prospered to 1844, when Birney, the second time its candidate, received about eight times as many, 62,300. In 1848 there was a combination of "Barn Burners," New York's flrst defection from pro-slavery Democracy, Liberty men, and Independents, all uniting in the support of Yan Buren, the cast-off servant of the slave-power, which that year had nominated General Cass. 396 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. There was something like revenge in what the pro-slavery Democracy called "the treachery of Van Buren;" but the noted fact that all men learned in that year was that, if the anti-slavery people could not elect a President, they had become strong enough to defeat any candidate against whom their vote was consolidated. They did this in 1848, turning New York against Cass, who was the Democratic nominee, as they had done against Clay, the Whig, in 1844. The anti-slavery party polled about three hundred thousand votes, five times as many as in 1844. In 1852 there was something of a calm. This year Scott, the Whig candidate, and Pierce, the Democratic one, were nominated, it was supposed, mainly because of their military service. The compromises of 1850, which will be taken up again, had been tacitly agreed to as another final settlement of the grievous slavery disputes. There had been nd further aggressions, and the people were discussing them as they liked all over the free States, but without excite- ment, and with no advance movement of the slave regime. That year John P. Hale, the Free Soil candidate, received 156,000 votes, whom no patched-up agreements could delude in that dullest Presidential election of the whole pro-slavery tide. In 1856 the storm had broken. The skeleton of the closet, the gaunt specter of Cabinets and kitchens in the White House, and the other Houses, the House of Repre- sentatives and the Senate, had taken the field in armor, was clothed and disclosed, and the spirit of slavery and its zealots, no longer compromisers, though still manipulators in all the high places of the Nation, revealed their true and desperate nature, and took the field in arms to fight for slavery, its existence and dominion, on the plains of Kansas. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, that the South had never seriously believed in, and only accepted in order to get Missouri admitted as a slave State, with its rich soil, THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 397 large area, and manifold resources, was ruthlessly and dis- Jionestly repealed. It appeared very plain to liberty-loving people what had been gained, and what had been lost to freedom in the admission of Missouri as a slave State. The battle was on, and the benefit to the pro-slavery leaders, as they believed, was sufficient to hazard their ven- ture to make Kansas a slave State. With the Democratic party committed to slavery, like Prometheus fastened to the rock, it could settle the slavery question, as most people then believed. The Missouri River was the only water-line of communication west of the Mississippi. There was but one railway, barely completed across the State of Missouri, and that was under control of the State whenever its offi- cials chose to exercise their authority, and the powers at Washington were all pro-slavery. The small force of the regular army, as much as one thousand men and an armed force, five times as many in Missouri and on the border, were ready to be used, and were used, to carry out the designs of the propaganda in every item and particular. All this and more, would it not over- load this review to relate it, could be given. Yet under all these discouraging circumstances, God and his faithful thou- sands were getting ready to take up the side of freedom on the Kansas plain. The forming Eepublican party, with a declaration against the extension of slavery, had elected a plurality of the mem- bers of the House of Representatives in 1854, and in tenac- ity and firmness, advancing and not receding or conceding, had elected ISTathaniel P. Banks, of Boston, for Speaker. This was a pitfall entirely unexpected, which balked the slave-leaders in all their designs for two years. In addition, in 1856, the Republicans rose to mighty strength, gathering all the weak and faitliful thousands who had been contend- ing for five to thirty years against slavery in various parties and parts of parties, for conscience' sake. 398 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. To begin with, the Eepiiblican organization grew ont of all the anti-slavery factions, all who were opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the further exten- sion of slavery, and the remnants of the dissolving Whig party in the free States, the tine old party of the brightest days following the revolution that had schemed and com- promised on slavery's ungorged demands until it had neither votes nor principles left. The Eepublican mustering and fusing of factions had no organization, only as the flocking thousands were drawn to it, as the best hope of arresting the encroachments of slavery. It aggregated its hundreds of thousands so rapidly in 1856, and was growing so strong out of the other parties' disintegration, that late in the cam- paign it came to be truly believed that if it could have been continued for two months longer Fremont, and not Buchanan, would have been elected President in that year. The change of Pennsylvania and Illinois would have accomplished it, and these States went strongly Eepublican at their next elections. As it was, Buchanan was elected by 174 electoral votes, against Fremont, who received 114. With the election the pro-slavery leaders realized that they had fought a political battle of the most dangerous kind, which really meant to them that they would have to fight real battles for the extension of slavery if they succeeded, or secede from the Union and destroy it, if they could, and fight for existence as a nation, or go down in insurrection. In this review we are not following movements in detail, as we desire to do later, but rapidly looking over slavery in its last years through its bloody, winding, destructive contortions to its inevitable doom. By the agency of soci- eties and individuals, as many as thirty thousand slaves found freedom in Canada. Although it was a small number com- pared with the aggregate of four millions in bondage, yet it was an uncomfortably large number. This fact, in ad- dition to the active anti-slavery forces in operation and THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 399 increasing, so much alarmed the South that it wrought them up to the highest demands for the arrest of fugitives. Among other fears for the system was the dread of an armed invasion, which was greatl}' aggravated by John Brown's assault on Harper's Ferry in 1859. In the year 1857 the work of making Kansas a slave State resulted in the formation of what became known as the Lecompton Constitution, which was one of the coarsest pieces of political bungling and fraud ever attempted by hirelings or mercenaries anywhere. It was such a bald, bold outrage, that open defiance of law would have been as creditable, and would have served them as well. They might have been respected for skill in the execution of the for- geries, but their rude blunders could never entitle them to respect. It was a Slave State Constitution, made and completed in Missouri, with poll-books, lists, ballots voted, tally-sheets, everything in detail, with lists of voters who did not exist, judges and clerks who never served, all compiled and authen- ticated by two or three persons whose work was apparent through it all. There was the same handwriting and the same colored ink, making it a mess of such fraud, intrigue, forgery, and imitation, that to this day as a job-lot of elec- tion journey work and rascality it has never been equaled. Douglas had served the slave-power long and well, but all through he had the commanding ability in himself to hold the loyal Democracy in line; and although Davis, Ben- jamin, and Stephens were able men and adroit schemers, Douglas was their superior, and defeated every one of their designs to divide the loyal Democracy. He had served the slave-leaders faithfully to the verge of his political destruc- tion; no more, however, than all the prominent leaders of the party had done as far as they were able; but he had the virtue, which he exercised with all his remarkable powers as a leader, to stop short of any Union-destroying or 400 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. slave-nationalizing policy, and to hold his loyal Democrats in line. Lincoln had grown great and able and strong, so that after his debate with Douglas in 1858 he was the coming leader, and after his nomination in 1860 he was among all intelligent men the recognized leader of his time. The Eepublican party had entered the field against slavery, de- claring its opposition to its extension only, it is true; but as the system could not exist without extension, the declara- tion was equivalent to a contest against the system, and the party under the leadership of Lincoln was ready for action. The Democratic part}--, under Douglas, was shortly in the rear, but gaining and ready for the movement. The slavery leaders were beaten before the election, and were aware of it long before the Northern people, waiting results under the best preparation for defeat they could make with- out disclosures of their plans or purposes. The Republicans nominated Lincoln and Hamlin at Chicago in 1860. The Democrats, after tedious balloting for days, defeated the nomination of Douglas, and divided the party as they were ready to divide the Nation. Douglas and Johnson, of Georgia, were nominated by the loyal free State Democracy and a few loyal Southern men at Baltimore shortly after- wards. Soon following this, the pro-slavery Democrats nominated Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and Lane, of Oregon. The Con- stitutional Union men nominated loyal John Bell, of Tennes- see, and Everett, of Massachusetts. Thus with four tickets in the field and slavery the absorbing topic, the political cam- paign of 1860 became the prelude for war, for the slave- holders were known to be determined to maintain their ascendency, or fight. By their own conduct they conceded that their political power was passing. The people of the free States as fully expected it. Lincoln and Hamlin were elected, receiving 174 electoral votes. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 401 The slave-leaders, by leave of a cowardly or faithless President and a treacherous Cabinet, brought on the war in April, 1861 — a war such as has not burdened the earth with its load of mortal suffering and death in modern times. In the beginning the South could have made terms for the restriction of slavery to the States in which it existed, em- bracing fully half of the territory belonging to the Nation, and much more than half of its arable area. Or the people, under the advice of President Lincoln, would have bur- dened themselves with a heavy tax to provide for a plan of gradual emancipation with compensation, but the slave-lead- ers wanted neither. They wanted nothing less than the domination of the Nation, its submission to them and their system, or sepa- ration, probably on the thirty-ninth or fortieth parallel of latitude, the north line of Missouri and Utah and half of California. Knowing they could get neither of these, they levied war against their country. There were starts and slips backward, and blunders in the progress of it. Some were too eager for the extinction of slavery at once, and some were for returning fugitives, as they termed it; but, as a rule, Freedom's banner was in the sky and floating over free men, and the bondman's road to freedom was opened wider and wider still. On September 22, 1862, the President announced that on the 1st of January, 1863, he would issue his proclamation abolishing slavery in all the States or parts of States then in rebellion, which he promptly did on the date fixed. On June 27, 1864, all laws for the rendition of slaves to their masters were repealed by Congress. On January 31, 1865, the final vote was taken in Congress submitting to the States for their approval and' ratification the following amendment to the Constitution, to-wit: "Article XIII. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a pun- ishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly 26 402 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." On December 18, 1865, the Secretary of State issued his proclamation declaring that this amendment had been approved by the Legislatures of the States of Illinois, Rhode Island, Michigan, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, Maine, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Nevada, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vermont, Tennessee, Ar- kansas, Connecticut, New Hampshire, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, in all twenty-seven of the thirty-six States, and the amendment was consequently adopted, and the curse of human slavery went out of the land forever. We have thus sketched the principal facts and features in the introduction, rise, progress, and downfall of slavery in our country. In our time, when Mr. Lincoln came to leadership for the gigantic encounter with it, it had grown to be a monster of such influence, strength, and magnitude that no man ever felt able for the task of contending with it to the end. Strange as it may seem, he of all our great leaders in the seventy years of national existence up to his time was the only one whose wisdom, determination, and management were never at fault, and who fought out the contest with it to its complete and final destruction. All our great leaders, from some cause or other, faltered and failed or compromised with the evil to its benefit, and it grew stronger and more powerful out of every attempt at restriction. Its opponents had effected nothing, and many able leaders were paralyzed and stricken in every contest until it fell into the mighty grasp of Lincoln. There were many others who fought and would have fought as devotedly as he, and did so with great gallantry, perseverance, and skill. He had the help of millions of our people, whose support and sustenance none realized like himself. Yet with all these considered, Lincoln's mighty contest with the monster evil of four centuries is and will remain one of the most THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 403 amazing, glorious, and lasting achievements in human history. It is not figure of speech or exaggeration of terms to write of the evils of slavery as we have done and should do when Lincoln and the people encountered it from 1845 to 1865. When the facts, records, movements, and events, the number held, owned, and sold, their increase, the prices they were sold for, the children sold from their parents, the parents separated, the unremitting progress and the character of the institution, the industries carried on by slave-labor, and the effects of its competition with free labor, were considered, the bad and injurious consequences were always beyond expectation. The subsistence and clothing which the slaves received, the cabins, tents, and shelter they had, the facts of the codes and statutes under whih they lived; how they were treated as chattels, and yet held responsible and punishable; how they were subject to so much law and could have no redress at law; how manumission was prohibited and made illegal in most of the slave States; how free men and women were taken, kidnaped, and sold into slavery; how learning, edu- cation, writing, even one's own name, was prohibited; how Christian peoples. States, and Churches, as they assumed to be, interdicted and forbid, under severe penalties of law, the reading, teaching, or illustration of Christ's holy gos- pel, — all these were opening to the minds of men its many- sided wickedness. The mind would tire in the relation of all the wretched- ness of the men and women held in bondage — the cruelties, humiliations, inflictions, that made and left them worse than beasts; the corruptions, lusts, and bestial degradation of the villainous men who chained and sold and lashed and out- raged them! What a sowing of the wind it was all over the South when the Negroes were carrying on labor and industry, and 404 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the white races were going into decay! In the brutalizing system of slavery the common people of the slave States were the poorest of the land. They should have been the hope and foundation of any righteous Government, but driven into idleness by false pride and cheap slave-labor, were listlessly retrograding, failing, sinking below the horrid level of the better-housed and better-fed Negro slaves. The free men and stronger-sustained industries of the free States were clipped of hundreds of millions of dollars annu- ally in the indirect competition of a system, the entire profit of which fatted and prospered a few thousand slave- holders. By precedent and example it led the way to other labor-robbing and other degrading systems that are with us yet, with their plundering schemes brought upon us by a horde of as cheap statesmen as the pro-slavery leaders. The system had spread and held direct or indirect control of all the departments of the Government. The army and navy were under its control and management, as its leaders were with few exceptions. Eecognition of service and pro- motion could only come with its consent, and the courts lived and moved and thought and decided and rendered their beggared opinions under the same corrupting supervision. Slavery began as a small help to labor, and was planted in all the Colonies. It grew as a money-making enterprise, and opened new fields for cheap labor through the profitable production of tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar as the main crops. It held its share of the Colonies, taking all south of Pennsylvania and the Ohio Eiver. It secured the pro- longation of the world-denounced slave-trade for twenty years, and was extended into the finest central region of the South, out of which were made to begin with the slave States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, as an offset to the Northwest Territory, which the wiser Virginians gave to freedom. It got the first benefit and two States up to the admission of Missouri out of the Louisiana THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 405 Purchase from France in 1803. It got all of the Florida purchase and a slave State in 1819. It helped to relin- quish, and not to acquire, a part of the fine Pacific Coast region of Vancouver and Upper Columbia country in 1819 to 1846. At the latter period it secured the vast Texan and Mexican cession of an empire in extent, reaching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, for which territory war was levied and carried on in its own interest. When unforeseen and natural obstacles prevented the extension of slavery into California and the vast mountain- ous mineral-bearing region, the Southern leaders turned their projected pro-slavery conquest inward, and in the exer- cise of all their powerful resources proceeded to plant slavery in Kansas, in the center of the new West, hoping to make it the basis for its extension further west, to do which the}' abrogated and tore away every legal restriction, including their own plighted agreement, by which they gained Missouri. They gained power and dominated every Administration in the interest of their system, when its con- tinuance, existence, or extension was in consideration or in issue up to 1840; from which time forward they had com- plete control and management of Tyler's, Polk's, Fillmore's (Webster excepted), Pierce's, and Buchanan's Administra- tions, up to 1860. They had control of Congress, with the interruption of the House of Representatives in 1854-55, from 1840 to 1860. Calhoun in a life-time's service shaped and fashioned the personnel of the Supreme Court until it was so debauched that it was led to the making of a decision which inferentially held that freedom was exceptional, and that "a black man had no rights which a white man was bound to respect." At the same time the stupid and faith- less Pierce in his artless way reported to Congress "that slavery existed in Kansas as surely and legally as it does in Georgia." It really did exist there, but in flagrant violation of law and the time-honored agreements of seventy years. CHAPTER XVIII. THIS slave system had debased all forms of labor in the slave States. The poor whites of the South were more degraded, worse fed, worse clothed, and worse housed, as a rule, than the slaves. The spirit of freedom had dis- appeared, and their once intelligent democracy and stal- wart, independent men, like Patrick Henry, Francis Marion, Sumter, Moultrie, Sevier, Boone, Jackson, and thousands of others, had passed. Their successors had shrunk and dwindled to dwarfs and pigmies in State and council, and cringed to and served the oligarchy of man-stealing, free- labor-destroying slavery, under the relentless rule of Cal- houn, Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, Alexander H. Stephens, and John C. Breckinridge. Ignorance prevailed, and learning, art, literature, and the sciences were being crushed. Churches were withering away. and yielding submission to the wickedness of the time. Christ and his gospel of universal brotherhood and as uni- versal manhood were supplanted by a fetich of money- getting and sequestration of human rights a thousand-fold worse than had ever been the exactions and usurpations of George III. Until their overthrow in 1861, they were conducting our Government more on the plan of the tyranny and rank corruption of Warren Hastings's Indian misrule than any other example of modern times. Society and living in the slave States were honeycombed with cruelties, assumptions of authority, and rapacity that would have rotted out the white race, except a few thousand 406 THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 407 slaveholders in a few generations. These were tlu! con- ditions, and the real ones, in the South at the beginning of the war. There were parts of States in which there were notable exceptions, like Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, where the people maintained their ascendency against slavery in many ways, mainly because they lived in sections inhospitable and unprofitable to it; but those homely, loyal, and independent people were always suspected and held under an espionage as repulsive to them, as "suspects'" as police-ridden France. In Missouri there was more toleration, for the reason given by a colored man of our acquaintance. Old Isaac, ''Misuree wus bounded on tree sides by freedom, an' God wus not berry fur off, an' ef de slabholder did git a mity good State he gib de brack man a good long start fur Canaday." The system was a grievous one, threatening and working evil in so many ways, and known to be such by millions of free people, when Mr. Lincoln came to his high leadership in the fifties, and the Presidency in 1861. It was known and felt to be a subject beyond human comprehension how such a system could be dealt with, and the free institutions of the people maintained. The times were serious indeed; the mighty race that had grown strong out of the self-govern- ing peoples of Europe, as far as they could carry out their beliefs and become welded together and united into free Americans, had fully considered and as fully determined that their liberties must be preserved, and that the battle for freedom must be waged to nothing less than a finish. Anti-slavery ideas had been to many a sentiment rather than a reality, a conflict of the dogmas of contending dis- putants, theorists, and statesmen, in which it was hoped and believed that the wrong would disappear. This and the want of national political organization had been altogether too much the policy of anti-slavery people and leaders from the beginning. 408 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The fathers?;, who had emerged from a war of independ- ence because of the usurpations of Britain, worn and ex- hausted, did not feel equal to the task of contending at arms with the iniquitous slave-power of their time, whose strongest element was the buccaneering slave-traders; so they parleyed and conceded, and left the conflict with the greater system of evil, which they could have crushed and mastered, to coming generations. The same policy of con- cession to wrong followed and continued, and was taken up by our statesmen, societies, and Churches, and believed in so earnestly by many teachers, that many well-meaning people by the million came to believe that slavery, firmly as it was planted in the heart of the iSTation, could be coaxed and argued and disputed out of existence. When Mr. Lincoln was elected, the conviction came to him, as never before, that he was to lead in a conflict vnth the strongest, best-organized, and most thoroughly- disciplined system that evil power had ever built upon the earth. He felt that he alone was utterly unable to con- tend with it. In February, 18G1, a few days before his start from Springfield, a few good friends of years' stand- ing had a friendly interview with him. The talk ran on the questions much as we have been treating them, and all of the dozen or more had heard him and talked them over with him before; but all felt an uncommon wish to hear from him again, before he left his home. He said that the Government, whatever it might be in strength and resources, was all in the hands of the slave-power, and as strong as, or stonger than, any of us could conceive or understand; for we had not seen the inside management. From the outside the Southern politicians appeared to act with such reckless disregard of the men in the North who had served it best and longest — such as Van Buren, Marcy, Cass, and Douglas — that they believed they had unlimited power to do and carry out their designs, and he verily be- THE MEN OF 11 iS TIME. 409 lieved that they were getting ready and intended to con- tend for their institution in war if they could not get all they wanted, and of that he only knew what the rest of us did. But, rising, and walking back and forward as he talked, with determination written in every feature, his eyes kind- ling with power and spirit, with his strong arm outstretched, now and then clenching the hand that was a wonder of strength, yet as tender as it was strong, he continued: "The gravity and seriousness of the situation, to me, is over- whelming, and I feel that a burden such as few men have ever seen or borne is resting upon me. It seems greater to me than the task laid upon Washington, and I have no desire to compare myself with him; but the contest seems as definitely drawn, and the issues involved, in their rela- tion to area, power, and people, are fully ten times as great. Alone I would be utterly powerless, but, sustained by the good people that love our country, I will go for- ward in the plainest and most straightforward path of duty, with the conviction firmly fixed in my mind that God will save and perpetuate the Nation if we but do our duty. It is his Nation, and it is his cause we are contend- ing for. The destinies of nations are in his hands as well as the lives of the little birds that warble in the trees; and he does with them whatsoever he will. The contest may be, and, if the slave-power develops all its strength, it will be, a desperate one. It saddens my heart beyond expression to think what it may be." Some one present arose and suggested that we retire, and not occupy more of his time, which, all of us knew, was so completely taken up. As all were rising to go, he said: "No, remain. I have nothing else to do, or at least nothing that can not wait. I want to say a word more. I feel honored by the visit of so many of my near friends and supporters, really my neighbors and friends who have 410 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. been faithful to me for so many years, when defeat was so common that it was not unexpected, and now, when some- thing of success has come to us, to encourage me in my work, to come from your homes — many of you at consider- able expense and inconvenience — and no one of you making any request for place or position for yourselves or friends, and with no wish that is not for mine or our country's wel- fare, is an unselfish act on your part that is truly gratify- ing to me. I have never doubted your friendship, and if I ever had, surely now I never can. "You have spoken of my strength and the greater strength that must support me in the path of right and duty. I am much affected by your tender expression of s}Tnpathy, and I assure you that all the strength that God has given me, and all that he gives in the future, will be freely used and given to save the Union. You are friends who have never faltered, and as we are parting it gives me an example of my duty; and I assure you again that, as God gives me wisdom and strength, it shall be faithfully used for the salvation of our countr}- and its liberties un- tarnished." Mr. Lincoln's presence, conduct, and expression on the occasion seemed an inspiration. He was with the friends of his earlier years — some of them from more distant places, but mainly from the central counties. One of his long-time friends said: "For twenty years we have stood by him through thick and thin, and only just now learned that Abe Lincoln is a great man. We 've always known he was a good man; and if he is as great as he is good, this country will have the best President it ever had." The most salient feature of this parting meeting among these thirty men — many of them able leaders before and after — was his commanding presence and his great tender- ness of heart, which appeared as delicate as a child's. He THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 411 seemed to have correctly estimated and foreseen what was to come and what did come. His thoughtfulness seemed quick and alive for every one, so careful as to tell one who seemed to have forgotten that it was time for his train. Let us imagine him as he stood before us in that as- semblage, among the choicest friends he ever had. There he was, high above all in stature, as he was in leadership, and still you would have no thought of oversize or gross- ness. Like the friends there congregated, you would be convinced that, when firmly settled in the belief that he was right, he would use every power and resource for the preservation of the Union, and that, if the Nation went down, he would go down with it. The people of the free States were a remarkably busy, energetic body, earnestly engaged in the ordinary pursuits of industrj-, and, besides, were burdened with the task of opening up the widespreading, almost boundless stretches of the rich, alluvial valleys and plains, and reducing them from wild wastes to places fit for habitation. Ordinary public and political affairs were much neglected, except when they became subjects of vital and unavoidable im- portance. The great work they were engaged in — the mak- ing of new States, was of such magnitude and all-pervad- ing interest that there was scarce time for other eniplo}^- ment. This neglect and disregard were often taken ad- vantage of to the detriment of the growing communities. There was the further disadvantage that, in the new settle- ments, the want of acquaintance and defective means of communication left them more helpless than in the older communities. In this formative stage of the Great West slavery made its encroachment on an industrious, unsus- pecting people. When the thirteen Colonies became the United States 412 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of America by the adoption of the Constitution in 1788, the States were as nearly evenly divided between free and slave as could be, as follows: FREE STATES. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, New Jerse}^, Pennsylvania, Ehode Island. SLAVE STATES. Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia. ADMITTED. Vermont 1791 Ohio 1802 Indiana 1816 Illinois 1818 Maine 1820 Michigan 1837 ADMITTED. Kentucky 1792 Tennessee 1796 Louisiana 1813 Mississippi 1817 Alabama 1819 Missouri 1830 Florida 1845 Texas 1845 The number of each was even — twelve States — up to the admission of Missouri. By the first settlement, when the Constitution was adopted, in the enumeration for making representative and electoral districts, the blacks were included under the desig- nation "all others," thus permitting a representation of three out of five slaves in Congress, and the same in making up the number of Presidential electors. This advantage, at the beginning of the war, in 1861, gave the slave States over fifty representatives and as many votes for Presi- dent — an advantage that amounted to one-sixth of the entire voting strength of the Nation. The apparent con- TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 413 cession to freedom at the time of the adoption of the Con- stitution was that Congress should have the right to pro- hibit the slave-trade after the lapse of twenty years, in 1808. Thus, in order to get the consent of the slave-power for the adoption of the Constitution, the vicious, piratical business of man-stealing was permitted to exist so long — a period in which the man-seizing, sea-roving brigands fully expected to supply the country with enough stolen Africans to fill the slaveholders' demand for slaves for fifty years. During the twenty years in which it was so protected, the business was greatly stimulated, to the extent that about five hundred thousand Africans were stolen and sold in the United States, almost doubling the number of slaves held, and swelling the number of black people pirated from Africa and sold into slavery in the slave States to the enor- mous aggregate of about eight hundred thousand souls. These multiplied and increased until there were four million slaves in the South in 1861. The Constitutional concession for the surrender of escaped slaves was as unjust and unrighteous as the slave catching and cruising from Africa. It was man-stealing in both — one across the seas, the other from the border States, wherever they could be kidnaped, and sold into the hell of slavery in the cotton States. This was a pro- vision to secure and follow up with legal processes all al- leged fugitive slaves, who, by the laws passed under it by Congress, were classified as felons. We have related the drastic provisions of law under which the}'^ were held to bondage in the slave States. It was the intention to make the laws for their capture and rendition as severe and out- rageous in the same kind of oppression that the whole man- stealing business existed under from the beginning. One of the worst features of the Fugitive-slave Law was that it turned Northern communities into man-catchers at the demand of the slave-hunters under all the acts. The re- 414 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. deeming feature was, however, that the law was so ob- noxious that it defeated itself; for no statute could turn free communities into such degrading business. About the time of the adoption of the Constitution most of the slaves were held in five Southern States. A few were held in all the Northern ones; but the system was never profitable in them, and there was so much pro- nounced opposition to it by the Quakers and Puritans that it never thrived, and was given up long before it came to be a question of public or political concern. There was never a majority for slavery in the early Congresses, nor in the Convention that framed the Constitution. The five ISTorthern States, with much more than half the popula- tion, were all anti-slavery. Five of the South were known to be for slavery, but Virginia was constantly and always anti-slavery. This gave the anti-slavery delegates a major- ity influence whenever they chose to exercise it. The lead- ing statesmen of Virginia agreed to the existence of slavery and the prolongation of the slave-trade in order to com- pass and achieve their one great desire of forming and founding the Nation. New York was lukewarm and in- different; so the co-operation of the five Southern slave States became a necessity to effect the harmonious and law- ful consolidation of the Colonies under National and Con- stitutional Government. The spirit and judgment against slavery is best shown in the deed of cession which was agreed to by Virginia, and passed and approved by Con- gress, which dedicated the vast region of the Northwest to freedom. The deed and all the acts enabling it to be- come a free territory were drawn by Jefferson, himself a slaveholder. At the time it was generally believed that the plan and purposes of the Virginia leaders, which Franklin and Ham- ilton fully approved as the best for the gradual emancipa- tion and restriction of slavery, would prevail. Perhaps it THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 415 miglit liave prevailed, but Eli Whitney, a progressive, in- quisitive Yankee, went South for his health and the better- ment of his fortunes. There he saw for the first time the production of cotton, with a nutlike boll, a heavy, oily seed, and a pure white fiber two or three inches in length. From two to five hundred pounds of this excellent fiber, useful for clothing, bedding, and other domestic purposes, could be cultivated and gathered from an acre of land according to its fertility and adaptation. An industrious Negro man could separate about one pound a day of this valuable fiber, take it out of the pod, and carefully strip it from its tenacious, oily seed. When Whitney got South among friends, his reputation for invention had gone with him. They assured him that nothing they could think of would equal in value a ma- chine that would separate the cotton fiber from the seed. Whitney set earnestly at work with all the perseverance and energy of his nature on one of the greatest inventions of his age, and in full view, as he believed, of a certain fortune. His hand was unerring; he was right. In a few months he invented and worked out a machine, mostly with his own hands, that would do the work. One man, with the ma- chine which he made, could, with his unaided labor, sepa- rate fifty pounds of cotton fiber a day. This was about October, 1793. He had achieved last- ing distinction. He had invented and made the machine that ^vould revolutionize labor and the production of cot- ton in the States adapted to its cultivation, and shortly all over the world. He made the invention, and reached the distinction which he deserved. He was in all equity and justice entitled to something out of the millions so many amassed by reason of his valuble invention. But others, and the great body of Southern planters in the cotton States, reaped the money reward of his genius and labor. The Southern people were noted for many commendable 416 ABRAHAM LINCOLN qualities; but this cotton-gin invention reminds us that generosity was never one of them. In their day they suf- fered and permitted General Jackson to pay a fine of one thousand dollars for violation of local laws, when the old hero saved Xew Orleans and the entire State and Terri- tory of Louisiana from the British; and they likewise suf- fered Eli Whitney and his heirs to go unrewarded for the invention of the plain-working machine, out of which they made individual fortunes by the thousand. His great in- vention, that created such an overwhelming demand for labor, fastened slavery more firmly on our country for three-quarters of a century than the most drastic code or persevering conduct of the infamous slave-traders could have done. This was not done, in whole or in part, by those who urged him on to his undertaking. They were anti- slavery people, and remained his friends. The compromise which gave the great State of Mis- souri to slavery, placing it in the most commanding situa- tion in relation to its extension and the exercise of political power, was one of the most unfortunate concessions ever made to slavery. It was especially valuable by the reason of the situation of Missouri and its relation to the growing West, and being conducted as it was, it forestalled any con- siderable opposition for years. It was the recognized slavery settlement during Mr. Clay's public career, when he and his followers became the successors of the Virginia leaders, who were fully committed to and believed in their plan of a peaceful policy of gradual emancipation. They were apparently so earnest and sincere in their be- lief that they took thousands of the strongest anti-slavery people and many of their ablest leaders into the work, who gave entire submission to it. During the thirty years' prog- ress and achievement of the slave-propaganda, from the bad settlement of 1820 to the next bad one of 1850, these peacefully-inclined men — Clay and his followers — were THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 417 full}^ co-operating and sustaining, as far as the results could, the pernicious policies of Calhoun, the avowed de- fender and extender of the slave system. In this thirty years of management under Calhoun and Clay, slavery got more than half of the territorv that was added to the Na- tion, and became so firmly fixed in power as to assert and exercise National supremacy. This influence had grown to such proportions as to Le absolutism in the Democratic party from the beginning of Tyler's accession to the close of Buchanan's surrendering Administration. During the same time the Whig party of former glo- ries was disintegrating, when it should have been approach- ing its strongest organization. In 1852, after the death of Clay, this anti-slavery party, or party of peaceful emanci- pation, claiming to be the successor of Washington, Hamil- ton, the Adamses, Clay, and Webster, was utterly destroyed as a political organization. These Whigs were great lead- ers, every one of them, but they could not reunite and re- invigorate the dying party, which had conceded and bar- tered away its principles in the interest of slave extensions. Of all and for all these Federals and Whigs, John Bell, of Tennessee, was the only one who was left who could contend for and expect to control his State in 1860. Some- thing may be learned of the deadening influence of the slave-prevailing sentiment when it is remembered that General Scott, who was a great leader in every achieve- ment he had won for our country, was compelled to be a candidate for President on a declaration of principles that was utterly oblivious of the great, absorbing question of the time, further than docile submission to the last com- promise. The last demand made by Calhoun and Davis, and conceded by Clay and Webster in 1850, was one that Lincoln, leader and master of coming times, and Seward could then only submit to and support with the Whig Presi- dential candidates in 1848 and 1852. 27 418 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Passing along under the operation of the Missouri Compromise, the free State of Michigan was admitted, January 15, 1836; the free State of Iowa was admitted, March 3, 1845; the slave State of Arkansas was admitted, June 15, 1836; the slave State of Florida was admitted, March 3, 1845. Either one of these free States had more population than both the slave ones when admitted, and was far more likely to increase, not only in population, but in all the industries and improvements which make and build up independent communities. The evening-up ad- missions for political balancing went on as regardless of population, industries, and the care of free institutions as it was possible to leave them. In this period — from 1820 to 1850 — the Nation was making remarkable progress. The cotton, rice, tobacco, and sugar production in the South was enormous, bringing into market every year quantities that brought money and manufactured products by hundreds of millions in return. The North and Northwest were building up States and communities, with houses, farms, and homes and the con- veniences, and many of the comforts of modern civilization, more rapidly and more widely than had ever been accom- plished by any other people. The slavery question was not settled, and was not be- lieved to be, unless it was by such mistaken patriots as Clay and his school of statesmen, who seemed to be imbued and satisfied with the efficacy of compromises restrictive of free institutions. The South, under the policy of the slave- propaganda and the watchful, adroit, and never-hesitating leadership of Calhoun, made compromises only when they could do no better. They stuck to them so long as they were making their most rapid progression. Meanwhile they were getting ready for a more open demand for terri- tory, repressive limitations against freedom of speech and discussion in both the old political parties, and more effect- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 419 ive slave-catching laws. All these had to he forthcoming from their friends and servants — the compromisers of free institutions in Congress — as soon as they got ready and called for them. On March 1, 1845, a few days hefore President Polk's inauguration, Congress passed a joint resolution in favor of the annexation of Texas and its admission as a State. War was levied against Mexico, as related, not so much to gain the valuable territory of Texas — for the brave Americans under San Houston had done that — as to wrest from the helpless Aztec people territory that would make a dozen principalities or States, every one of them to be a new field for their "divine institution of slavery." The war was waged, and the Northern half of Mexico was taken, as it had been planned for years; but it came as ashes to their lips. Texas was, however, formally ad- mitted as a slave State, December 29, 1845, with the un- usual privilege of making four more slave States as fast as population and settlement would justify their admission, and the further National prerogative of the State owner- ship of its public domain, the unoccupied part of which was at that time larger than three States of the size of Missouri. The admission of Texas made, for the time, one more slave than there were free States; but this was balanced again in 1848, when Wisconsin was admitted as a free State. God, in great wisdom and ample preparation, gave men the opportunity to build up a pure democracy on this Con- tinent, and has always provided means for the protection and advance of the simple faith and doctrine that the rights of men are paramount in all human systems of gov- ernment when rightly and honestly administered. In that way came the marvelous achievement of the founda- tion of the Eepublic against Britain in the beginning, which has been followed all along l)y natural and unexpected 420 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. agencies springing up at every juncture wherever free in- stitutions seemed in hazard or dangerous situation. As it has been made apparent in the narration of the foregoing facts, no better plan or more complete projected scheme could have been devised than the one which was to make every foot of territory wrested from Mexico part of the coming slave empire, and give it headway and path- way to the Pacific Ocean. With this scheme carried out, the slave-owners would have had territory and States without limit, when probably they would have met with few other obstacles in the establishment of their ideal sovereignty. The nation, or empire, of Davis and his followers was to be made out of the slave States of the South, Mexico, Central America, and as many of the islands of the Antilles as they desired, with or without the jSTorthern States, or part of them, as might be determined. This plan was all in due course of execution, and no body of men who ever led a good or bad cause ever had better reasons, apparently, to expect the complete success of their plans up to a certain time. The slave propagandists, with the help, direct and indi- rect, of all who could be coaxed, led, or driven into their horrid conspiracy, were expecting success. On the suc- cessful close of the Mexican war, if there had been no other than human agencies for the slavers to contend against, the American Eepublic would have perished in the house of its pretended friends and administrators at the time, and freedom would have been but a memory. Not many men were leaders in those days, and but one or two of these ever were in any kind of situation to do much against the culmination of this diabolical scheme. General Taylor was elected President, and, although a slaveholder, he was an honest man, and was never trusted, and could do little against them, except to hold them back. He died in the second year of his term, and I THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 421 was succeeded by Fillmore, who, although a Northern man whom they never trusted, yet was so anxious for a renomi- nation in 1852, that he became one of their menials, and served them much more and further in their designs than General Tajdor would have thought of doing. Mr. Clay was quite old, in his dotage, at his home, seek- ing the quiet that his age and infirmities required; but at his best, though suspected, he was always to be depended on to coax out of the anti-slavery people the best pro- slavery and most degraded anti-slavery concession that the Northern leaders of all parties would make to avert war with slavery. Webster was at Washington, the one possible leader before Lincoln who, if he had possessed the courage, tenacity, and in- tegrity equal to his high intellectual and commanding pow- ers, could have been the leader of the people in their grapple with the evil monster ten years before Lincoln; but God was building and training the man for the contest, and Webster, the great-minded man, so strong and so well qualified and prepared, as far as human judgment could discern, was neither able nor fitted to lead in the desperate encounter. He had commanding powers, was a learned and eminent man, but was failing in the blast as others had failed. Much to the disappointment and chagrin of the devoted friends and followers of a lifetime, he fell a sacri- fice to the compromising tendencies that had ruined Clay. In the tangle of his "President-seeking" ambition, in the quest of a nomination which he was never to get, he spent the closing years of his life in unconcealed sorrow. He had the genius that pounded men's beliefs into a knowl- edge of the fitness and comprehensiveness of our Consti- tution. God, in his wisdom, no doubt sent him into the world to do this very work; but this wouderful, talented man, as well as a genius, in place of flying to the rescue and being the great leader of the loyal people of the Nation, who 422 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. were hungering and thirsting for such an one to lead, turned his ambition and godlike powers from being a leader without a rival into being a President-seeking almoner. He thirsted and cringed to the slave-power for the doubtful achievement of a Whig nomination for President, when he knew as well as any one that the cautious, dark-eyed princess of the slave dynasty usuallj^ selected the moldable men of the North for that sacrificing service from among the pliable relics of the Democratic party, like Franklin Pierce. So Webster the Great — for he was truly so — fell stricken and unstrung with a too common phantasy; and when he should have been leading our people to freedom and right- eous condemnation of slavery, in loyal service to the Con- stitution he had pillared in the hearts of patriotic men, he driveled into senility. He engaged in lecturing and re- proving his countr}anen for the "dangerous and unneces- sary agitation of the slavery question and useless talk against slavery, which," said he, ''I verily believe would perish if let alone in its unequaled competition with free labor and natural conditions." Webster passed as a leader, and, like Lear, was out of his time when his great powers had not only been arrested, but were fading away. General Winfield Scott possessed something of the qualities of a leader, and in contest with any form of National destruction he would have had the courage and loyalty to sustain the Government, as he did under all circumstances; but having grown up with slavery all about him, indifferent and ignorant of its most revolt- ing features, he was in no sense the competent and appro- priate leader to -vvin the cordial support of the anti-slavery people of the free States, who were constantly being ani- madverted upon as a dangerous class of people. Those who were being classed as dangerous, and de- nounced as such, who were in all parties, and in their own party in many localities, everywhere in hundreds of thou- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 423 sands, were denominated "Abolitionists, dangerous people, and disturbers of the public peace.'' This was done with no more proof of the statement than the resolutions of time-serving political hirelings of the slave-leaders. These conscientious, liberty-loving men, who were Abolitionists because they believed in right and justice, were in no way alarmed or intimidated by the threats or denunciations of Conventions and employed prevaricators. They were the body of fearless people who were soon to be needed, with all their powers in action, in forming or keeping alive any party that could hope to help save the Nation against slavery domination, secession, or destruction. Clay, Taylor, Fillmore, and Scott could neither of them gain the cordial good Avill and support of the anti-slavery people because they had lived under the slavery rule so long, and submitted to its behests so often, that their minds were blunted to the enormities of the evil. In place of denouncing it as wrong, and doing something for its amelio- ration or abolition, they contented themselves in denounc- ing the freedom-believing people who desired to resist it in every way open to them as freemen. Such being the re- lation of the above leaders to the issues of the time, no one of them had the qualities and capacity to lead. Web- ster had thro^\Ti away his opportunity — his last one — and the Whig party, without an available leader on the absorb- ing topic of the time, dissolved while sounding approval and confidence in the compromise settlement of 1850. No one of its divisions or factions sincerely believed in or intended submitting to it longer than until an opportunity should come for more desirable afhliation, when the party died of too much slavery in 1852. At the same time the same question was sundering the Democratic party from top to bottom; and many of its old-time respected leaders and men were being scattered and driven in the storm of the people's wrath like '"chaff before the wind." 424 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The years following the Mexican War, from 1847 to 1856, were the times of party upheaval, party dissolving, and party reorganization for the actual contest awakened by slavery encroachment and its threatened extensions. It was the time when parties were casting off old leaders and following or training new ones. It was the time of bragga- docio, bluster, and pretense, when the shallowest-headed, like empty carts, were the loudest and most arrogant, when parties and compromisers, apologists, and trimmers, were flying in the political blasts like seagulls in a gale. It soon came to take more than timid resolutions or hired newspaper denunciations to sequestrate a man from society as "danger- ous" when he became known as an Abolitionist; and this heroic distinction was lost when the Free Soil party de- veloped §0 fast and its members became Eepublicans, be- cause there were so many thousands of them. During all this period of party wreckage and perishing ambition, when trusted men were falling by the wayside, and sullen, out- raged Americans were revolting from treacherous party rule by the hundred thousand, there was neither fault nor failure, mishap nor miscalculation, in the plans, move- ments, management, and control of the slave-propaganda. The movement to take care of, sustain, protect, and extend slavery went on as regularly and with as much or more attention than the regular operations of the Govern- ment. Every detail, line, and word of control or direction passed under the scrutiny, supervision, and determining power of their one great leader, Calhoun, as long as he lived. Although never crowned or anointed, as the fashion is in smaller despotisms, nevertheless he held power as absolute as the wildest and most savage barbarians that once infested the Ehine, the Danube, the Seine, or the Thames. Calhoun held on to his work and leadership in his kingly way until he was dying, in 1852, so enfeebled during the THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 425 closing years of his life that he was seldom able to deliver his speeches and addresses in the Senate. Not long after his death, Jefferson Davis came into succession as the leader, by agreement and common consent — one of the best-trained, best-informed, and most competent states- men who ever exercised power or authority in our Govern- ment. He was less of a scholar, debater, or reasoner than Calhoun, but much superior to him in the details and conduct of executive business; and, though less accom- plished and plausible than Calhoun in his princely, digni- fied manner and mien, he was vastly more prompt, direct, and practical in his despotism, and as fearless and relent- less in the exercise of it. We have seen how the great Whig leaders melted away under the operation of this slavery curse, when eminent and worthy leaders went down in such rapid succession. Although the party had, within its half-century of exist- ence, produced and drawn to it a galaxy of talented and accomplished leaders, they were all scourged, lacerated, wounded, or driven to an untimely end — not because they had not served the enormous evil, but because they had served it too much and too well. When they could serve it no longer, they were cast aside without sympathy or remorse. They were men of worthy distinction, many of whom have been remembered in volumes that do not more than record their many virtues and their services. But it was not alone in the Whig party that the political mortality was like a fifty years' plague among its leaders. The Democratic party had served slavery better and more zealously through all these years; and though most of its leaders were not so distinguished, able, or eminent, it had maimed, cast off, and destroyed three or four times as many Northern and anti-slavery Democrats as it had de- stroyed Whigs. The Democratic party had been in political control of the Nation most of the time, and it had more 426 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. prominent men who, for the promised distinction, would venture against the real foe of a true Democracy. Of these leaders there was Andrew Jackson, who had not served the slave-power to his lasting detriment, discomfiture, or down- fall. Of those who had reached high distinction the political necrology Avas more notable and in more regular succes- sion than that of the Whigs, There was Van Buren, the ablest trimmer, straddler, and all-round business manager, whose thrifty and crafty mixing of money and political science was unsurpassable. He and his regency were played off as a pawn with which to defeat Cla}^, when Polk, the true and faithful, was trusted with high leadership in the Texan and Mexican extension, so perfectly planned and executed. After Van Buren was William L. Marcy, of New York, a well-equipped statesman, who could not do what Van Buren had done so easily — care for and control his State. Though he served the slave-power as well as the renegade Yankee, Franklin Pierce, and was the strongest man, intellectually, in the Cabinet he served; yet, as he could not fix and hold his great State in his political pocket, he was laid aside for a more promising victim. Along with these, and before them — one of the relics of the days of Jackson and his plain, stubborn loyalty — was Thomas H. Benton, for thirty years senator from Missouri. He was a man who knew everything about the Government, from its foundation up. From the admission of Missouri, when his service began in the Senate, he was, for much of the time, the apologist and servant of the slave-power, yet never to the point of disloyalty; and he could neither be cajoled, deceived, nor misled. Senator Benton was one of the truly great men of the Nation. He had few equals in the realm of real and emi- nent statesmanship; and in a life of service and experience devoted to his country he had learned that slavery retarded the growth of any people, and that it had to be abolished, THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 427 or it would strangle what was left of free institutions. He had seen the light of a higher destiny in his autocratic, impetuous way, not uncommon to leaders such as he had been for half a century. He denounced and spurned the destroy- ing system from him, and regretted in his age and ripened wisdom that he had not another life to live, to contend with the degraded labor-robbing system and its aggres- sions against all that was good and commendable in free government. Benton therefore was overthrown by the pro- slavery Democracy of his State and the Nation. He had committed the unpardonable offense of disobedience to the slave-power in outspoken addresses, in which he said what he believed to be true about it, for which offense he was never forgiven. After his defeat for the Senate he was elected a member of the House of Eepresentatives from St. Louis; but the relentless opposition of the slave-masters followed him, and he was defeated for re-election. Thus driven from place and power by the leaders of the heartless system he had done so much to build and sustain, he was willingly and eagerly cast aside. Instead of this being the drastic punishment and overthrow that would leave him without name or future mention, it en- abled him to accomplish the greatest achievement of his life, in writing, from 1853 to 1858, his imperishable "Thirty Years in the United States Senate." This work will be a living memory for good when nothing will remain of Calhoun except that which is said in mercy and forgiveness. Had Benton, in his youth, grown up in the free States, he could have reached the highest position and leader- ship; but his environments were against him. He had no benefit of free institutions. He was independent, and soon became a leader in the false aristocracy of slavery. In his age, when the death-struggle of the system was coming, when his vision became clear, he could only bear evidence 428 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and put on record the vileness and freedom-destroying effects of the bad system he had served so long. General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, who held place and position throughout his long and useful career, although prudent, careful, and conservative, had nevertheless stirred up many ambitious men against him. When he was nomi- nated for President in 1848, they were either lukewarm in his support, as the slave-leaders were, or opposed him in voting for Van Buren, who that year was the Free Soil candidate for President, with more desire to defeat Cass than serve the party he was posturing with. Cass, there- fore, though an able, competent leader, with long years of experience, was wholly unfitted to combine all the patriotic elements of his own and other dissolving factions against the encroachments of the slave-leaders. Cass had not been as effectually removed and disabled as Benton was, but he was so broken by his defeat as to be out of hearing or con- sideration for any further leadership, being, in his age, another invalided statesman who had served the "domestic institution" so faithfully and so long as to lose the respect and confidence of his own freedom-believing and independ- ent-voting people. There remain Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Judge Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis, of those who were to grapple and lead in the furious conflict. These will be considered in their appropriate relation as we pro- gress. From the beginning of the slavery difference and dispute, on the adoption of the Constitution, in 1788, to the close of the war, there were as many as a thousand able and talented men in all parties who differed and dis- cussed the system. To their honor it can be said that, out- side of those who were directly interested in slavery or the trade that came from its productions, very iew ever con- sidered it other than a great evil to be removed from our country in the least harmful but most effective way. CHAPTER XIX. WHILE peace negotiations were being concluded with Mexico in what has become known as the Guada- lupe Hidalgo treaty, in 1848, rich deposits of gold were discovered in California. The whole country was soon agitating and discussing the discovery, considering and equip- ping thousands of adventurers and emigrants for a move- ment over the Plains, on water by the Isthmus of Panama, and shipping as it could be had — any way to get to Cali- fornia, even by circumnavigating the South American Con- tinent. In this way over two hundred thousand made Califor- nia their home in the first year's moving of the tide of population. They adopted a free State Constitution after an earnest encounter and a very decisive victory over the pro-slavery party. These free Staters in 1849-50 were vig- orously demanding admission as a State. The peculiarly- unsettled conditions, the rapid assembling and settlement of so many and such widely-differing bodies of people and individuals, together with their fast-growing commerce and business, required the establishment of a State Govern- ment without delay. This was so apparent that it was soon conceded that the State would be admitted without obstructive opposition. With the impediments of a rush- ing population, the vast mineral discoveries, rich valleys of land along the coast, and the remote location, stimulated the slavery party to enter into a stoutly-contested effort to fix slavery in this far-away region ; but for any slave- owner to venture there with his slaves would have been 429 430 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. about equivalent to their liberation. Even if slavery could have been fastened upon the State by scheming political jugglery and the murder of Senator Broderick, the people would soon have overturned the whole plan. If the schemers could have made California a slave State, and been able to secure a pro-slavery representation in Congress, they would have been content to hold it that way to preserve the political control of the Government, and would have agreed not to antagonize the people of the State with the introduction of slavery. All this was at- tempted under control and direction of the pro-slavery Democratic faction, led by one Dr. William Gwin, of Vir- ginia, who had been made a duke of something by some European mountain town. Slavery extension was defeated under the leadership of David Broderick. Gwin and Broderick were elected the first senators from the Pacific Coast. The question of Gwin's ever having been created a count or a duke, as he stoutly affirmed, was referred to a prominent lawyer at Washing- ton, with the understanding that, if he held such title, it would be a disability to his holding his senatorship. The lawyer, on ascertaining the facts, reported that there was no existing disability to prevent Gwin's holding the office, that there was no such dukedom or principality, and, inf eren- tially, that Gwin was more a fool than a duke. The demand for the admission of California as a free State, the abundant mineral resources and great discoveries in the ceded Mexican territory, and the bitter and unex- pected defeat of the slave party in California, decided a sudden turn in the plans of the slavery-extensionists. The projectors of this powerful, forming slave-empire under- stood well the absolute necessity for it. They understood as well the rising opposition to any further extension of slav- ery, and that it could neither be repressed, resolved, nor terrified into submission. This reopened the whole subject THE MEN OF HIS TTME. 431 of slavery in 1849-50, with more agitating discussion, more avowed opposition, and more earnest desire and determi- nation for its restriction than had ever been taken by the people in the former contention or supposed compromise settlements. The truth is that there had never been any compromise adjustment that was not held and treated by the slaveholders as a shifting one, which they could change, modify, or abro- gate at their pleasure. Agreements with them, as is always the case with grasping, usurious, and avaricious men, had no more influence over them nor strength against them than the strength and power that could be used and that would compel them to abide by the agreements they had made. In this case, however, it amounted to nothing. Hence there was widespread apprehension and anxiety all over the slaveholding South. The confidence of other days had passed. The great region taken in conquest, for which the war had been waged, was to be opened to slavery without interruption, south of the Missouri south line of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, as far as to the Pacific Ocean. But alas for all human plans! it had been suddenly discovered to be a vast mineral region, where a bondman would not be safe over night. The toiling miners and the prospectors, the keenest and most alert of all the roving fortune-seekers, always ready for excitement, and eager for new adventures, would have railroaded a black man to freedom any day as a pastime. Thus the movement for extension, so auspiciously be- gun and so successfully carried on up to the time for occu- pation, suddenly and abruptly ended in the wave of a West- ern moving multitude of miners and home-seekers. The great belt of valleys, rocks, and endless mountain ranges was not to be the gateway of a spreading Western empire, but the abutment and rugged boundary of slavery, where all the wild, fantastic dreams of profit, power, and regal splen- 432 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. dor would wither and perish. The South was in a state of real alarm. Slavery had reached its Western limit, hemmed in by the mountaineers, whose guns and pathways led only to freedom. The Constitutional lawyers, the senators, the judges, the councilors, and the wise men of the propaganda — men of standing and influence — were appealed to for help and a way out of the impending restriction. While free States and free institutions were growing and spreading so fast, slavery would die out unless it could expand equally, and have enough power to keep its rulers, agents, and servitors in full control at Washington. The distress signal of the slave-rulers, big and little, was sounded early in 1850, and the traffickers in humanity and their puny-minded sympathizers were ordered and be- sought to assemble in grave and solemn manner, and in the most plausible and engaging demeanor secure a final ad- justment of all the differences between slavery and free- dom and the Northern and Southern sections, which should be binding and inviolable. In this distress and general anxiety, the Thirty-first Congress assembled in the belief that it was a time for the exercise of their most temperate consideration, highest wis- dom, most patient investigation, toleration of other men's ideas, necessities, and dangers, and moderation in every feature that would make or lead to an amicable agreement. This was undoubtedly the spirit of the greater part of the members of that memorable Congress. With their light and knowledge, the dread of approaching war, and the strong, prevailing sentiment against it, they did the best they could and the best that was possible at the time, and, in the providential unfolding of events, just what was neces- sary to do to hold the eruption down until other men and other leaders could grapple with the monster evil. What they did was formal, and if the name of settle- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 433 ment had been taken from their agreements the measures would have been found to leave the real subject of slavery about where it was when they began. But the name of a settlement was necessary, if it did nothing more, to calm the agitated state of public feeling. But the real condi- tion of the Nation and people and their relation to slavery and its extension was little, if in any way, changed by the laws enacted which took the sounding title of ''the Com- promise Measures of 1850.'' As far as could be known by the closest and most careful observers, public or private opinion had not changed by the adoption of any one of the measures; and by those best qualified to understand the whole subject, it was regarded as an agreement to keep the peace. It was, however, a grand assembling and an august oc- casion in the passing of men and issues. The wisest, most venerable, and most experienced men of our country and time sat and deliberated in that famous council. Calhoun was there, infirm and dying, but with his intellect as clear and unclouded at the close as in the beginning of his life- time uninterrupted public career. He was then so infirm that his voice was barely audible; but he was still able to wield his unquestioned leadership, which he held continu- ously from its first well-consolidated organization, at the beginning of the century, as the undisputed ruler and dic- tator of the slave-propaganda. Benton was there, threatened, it is true, but still in the exercise of his high and independent powers, a Demo- crat of the Jackson mold, whose mind was at least open- ing to the evils and disadvantages to the white people of slavery, with its unpaid and degraded system of labor, that would starve white people out of so fertile and resourceful a State as Missouri. Clay was there, risen from his bed, to serve in the great council of the Senate, just forty years after his first ap- 28 434 ABEAHAM LINCOLN. Ijearance in it as one of its yoiingest, though always as one of its cordially accepted and welcomed members. He was surely sincere this last time, and as nearly positive as he could ever be. He had answered the urgent call of his State and the most earnest pleadings of his friends, North and South, who had been true and faithful to him through- out his long and brilliant career. He had come out of volun- tary retirement for the good of his country, to help make a settlement that would avert the hostilities he had dreaded so long. He was in his age and the closing years of a truly- distinguished life, infirm, but less feeble than Calhoun, with acumen as bright and mental action as alert as when he was young. His keen and shining talents and brightly-pol- ished addresses were the highest achievement of any Amer- ican statesmen, and he was conceded leadership by reason of his commanding and winning ways and grand appearance even before he had spoken a word. He was a man whose wonderful control was so far surpassing in all his life that no one ever thought of meeting another man with talent for the complete leadership of men that possessed even a resemblance of Clay's wonderful gift. It was said repeat- edly in his lifetime that there was no alternative of follow- ing Clay, except to hate him. John J. Crittenden was there, too, from Kentucky, who was a respected leader and one of the clearest-headed of the followers of Clay in the Senate. He was an able and ac- complished statesman, but a timid and temporizing one, who grew up and held office all through the compromising concessions to slavery. The great and majestic Webster was there, to engage, for the last time, in the debates and conclusions on the floor of his former glorious service in the American Senate. There he had won lasting and deserving fame, that even his faithless desertion of his cause and people in the hour of compromising cowardice could not rob him of. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 435 Sam Houston, of Texas, was there, who had, with his gallant patriots, made a nation with the domain of an em- pire. He was a senator from this newly-acquired territory, which he and his compatriots had won at arms, and had united to the land of his birth, when they turned over their nation to the Union as one of its greatest States. Houston was a real man, something of the mold and make-up of Benton and Jackson, a braver spirit than the former, and a more capable statesman than the latter. He was gallant and daring, and a man of the people for his whole lifetime, and desiring to be known as one of them. He had lived and risen to real greatness with slavery all around him, but had grown above it, so as to see and measvire it truly as it was — the crushing evil of the time. He did his best, and that was a great deal, to build up and save the Nation he loved so well. For this he contended and suf- fered to the end, to the time in 1860, when he resigned his office as governor rather than have any share in the mad- ness that was endeavoring to wreck the Nation in the de- basing as well as the cruel system of slave-labor. In his age he lived, as he had ever done, a stalwart friend of his country. Houston knew and realized the truth, which thousands of his Texans have since discovered, that slavery was the most objectionable system for its industries of all the cot- ton States. With its varied, inexhaustible resources, its healthy and salubrious climate, and the free, independent spirit of its people, it was the best adapted to free institu- tions and free labor of all the Southern or Gulf States. Houston had grown in his wisdom and experience to a rip- ened knowledge, that could comprehend such advantages as well as enjoy his exalted patriotism. His life was a dis- tinct American achievement. His place among our leaders and statesmen and heroes is so near the top that the space about him will never all be filled. 436 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, was there, a senator who had been governor of his State. He had been elected to the Senate by the Democratic Legislature in 1849, when his anti-slavery beliefs were known by all men. He was a man of capacity, learning, with a finished education, that prepared and sustained him as a leader among the helpers who stood so f aithf ully . in the cause. As senator, chief of the treasury through the war, and chief-justice, he was one of our ablest, most clever men, who labored and served until the Nation was purged and the people were freed from four centuries of wrong and oppression. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, was there — the plain, unpretending commoner, the advocate and trusted friend of his people. His thirty years' blow-on-blow con- test and unflinching fight for freedom with the slave-leaders and his State's degenerated Democracy marks the iSTation's survival and overthrow of the system that was rotting out the foundations of civil liberty. He was never an apologist, a doubter, or a compromiser with wrong. He served men and his country as his conscience bade him, in zeal and ear- nestness that hesitated at no opposition, and with the ex- tremely good sense to be always on the right side of free institutions and the rights of men. He was always in the foremost division of those most keenly alive to the faintest cry of the humblest and weakest of all that were oppressed. He was there on the field of his labors, to contend for men and their rights and for the integrity of the Nation against all its foes. He fought the shoddy and the rotted and the damaged food and equipment in the hurried work of gath- ering, handling, and furnishing the immense supplies that were needed for the men who were fighting in the cause of the Nation's liberty. He was the constant dread of the lobbyists, with their attachment of brokers and usurers, who discredited greenbacks, saying they were good enough to pay for our bonds and the soldiers in the ranks, but not good THE MEN OF HIS TIME 437 enough to pay the capitalists, until they were made redeem- able in gold by act of Congress, in 1869. To his lasting credit and honor, he had the integrity, courage, and man- hood to denounce their financial operations as a crime. His record of service for labor and laboring men and in the interests of humanity was so stainless that the worshipers of the golden calf and the importers of cheap labor from Europe have let him rest unmolested. William H. Seward was in that famous council, a mem- ber of the Senate that was full of the memories and vic- tories of its industrious men, passed and passing. Calhoun closed his career amid the debates on the last slavery com- promises of the seventy years' dispute. Clay, Webster, and Benton lived only a few short years afterwards. They were a quaternion of the ablest men that ever graced our Senate, who left nothing unsettled which the highest, most tena- cious, and learned disputing could fix and determine. Senator Seward was born in Orange County, New York, in 1801. He was educated at Union College, and began the practice of law in 1823. He entered upon his political career almost as soon, perhaps about 1824, when he began making speeches against the "Albany Eegency," as the Democratic State Committee was denominated. In 1830 he was elected to the State Senate, his first office. In that service he originated and effected the passage of a system of laws for the restriction and control of corporations, which were held to be fair and equitable in their day. In 1834, Mr. Seward was defeated for governor by Marcy, Democrat, whom he defeated afterwards, being elected gov- ernor in 1838. Many wise measures of administrative re- form were inaugurated during his term of office. He was re-elected in 1840. The substantial reforms which he rec- ommended included an enlargement of the Erie Canal, the entire obliteration of all laws for imprisonment for debt, and enlargement and extension of the common schools. A 438 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Constitutional Convention was provided for by act of the Legislature, and met in 1846, when these reforms were embodied in the fundamental laws of New York. He became distinguished as a leader in the Whig party, and entered zealously into the campaigns for Clay, in 1844, and Taylor, in 1848, openly belonging to the anti-slavery faction from the beginning, as against Fillmore, who took the conservative side. Seward, like Chase, became noted for defending fugitive slaves, taking every case that came up in the State of New York, and assisting Chase in Ohio, contending in the courts that slavery was the creature of local laws, and that alone; and that a man once a slave, when within the boundaries of a free State, was a free man, and that he could not be remanded into slavery, be- cause the local law of New York or Ohio had as efEectually liberated him as the code of Virginia or Kentucky had en- slaved him. This was the law as declared by the English courts in the preceding century, as we have related. They held also that the Fugitive-slave Law and all laws for the capture and return of fugitive slaves were unconstitutional, and not binding in the free States ; that Congress held no authority to reduce men to service or slavery where the laws of a State did not authorize it, and cited in support of the cor- rectness of this construction "the famous Virginia and Kentucky Eesolutions of 1798," called "the State-rights Eesolutions." These resolutions held that, in the matter of any differ- ence or disagreement between the General Government and any State, or in the same differences between States, the law of the State was supreme within its jurisdiction. This assertion of law on the part of Seward, Chase, and many others, did much to alarm the South, and force the demand that brought about the so-called Compromise Measures of 1850. These Virginia Resolutions, as construed by the THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 439 slaveholders, further declared that when any State could get no redress from its real or supposed grievances, one of its reserved rights was that it could withdraw or secede from the Union. Thus in the years following the Mexican War the slave- power was forced into the dilemma of submitting to the natural and political restrictions of their institution on the West and Southwest, or of making and remolding the laws of the Nation on the subject of slavery, so that slaves might be owned and held in every State and Territory of the Union. The Supreme Court had been made up and care- fully constructed, both as to members and their residence, so that in 1850 it was wholly subservient to Calhoun and his successors, thus forestalling the action of the court in the certainty that a decision fastening slavery on the Nation would be forthcoming whenever it became prudent and nec- essary to promulgate it. The agitation in 1848-50 was rousing up the people all over the free States, and among prudent men throughout the border States the sentiment against slavery extension and the division between the extensionists and anti-slavery people was increasing and more sharply defined every day. Indignation-meetings were being held all over the free and in parts of the border States. The resistance was strong, stubborn, and emphatic, and was certain to increase to a higher pitch if the threatened slave-catching policy was carried out. The times were ominous indeed. The tongues of millions were loosened, and the slave-leaders realized better than their opposing factions did that the time was at hand for the final contest in this country on the slavery issues. They had control of the Government in all its branches, and felt assured that they could hold it for some years, regard- less of the action of the older parties then in existence, that were wholly managed at their bidding. They could 440 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 3'et command all the legislation thej^ desired, and force parties to their support. In this condition, when all other things were equal, they preferred the use and control of the Democratic party, because of the better training and dis- cipline of the organization. Still, under the fear that one or other House of Congress might be carried against them, they demanded and secured the passage of what were after- wards known as the Compromise Measures of 1850. Mr. Seward was elected a senator from New York in 1849, and was there a member with the great statesmen of that age, to begin his stubborn contest with slarery. Soon after the meeting of Congress in special session, March, 1850, Clay, who was still the master compromiser, reported a bill embodying the proposed settlement, contain- ing five separate acts on as many subdivisions of the sub- ject. These were all embraced in one proposed plan. They were: First, the admission of California at once as a free State; second. New Mexico and Utah were to be organized as Territories, under Mexican law on the subject of slavery, which prohibited it; third, a more restrictive Fugitive-slave Law in accordance with the Southern demands was the prin- cipal one, under which any Negro could be remanded to or taken into slavery by any United States commissioner or justice of the peace. The magistrate was to receive ten dollars in case the alleged fugitive was remanded or sent into slavery, or five dollars in case he was set at liberty. No jury trial was provided for, and the accused black man or mulatto could be taken before as many different magis- trates as the assumed owner or marshal determined to take him. In the enforcement of this high-handed outrage against the Negro race, slave or free, the United States mar- shal, or any of his deputies, had authority to enforce the service of any citizen to assist in capturing or holding any suspected fugitive. Fourth, slavery was not to be inter- fered with in the District of Columbia, and the traffic of THE MEN OF HIS TIME, 441 soiling Negrocp between the States was lo continue unmo- lested. Fifth, the State of Texas received ten million dol- lars for what was called, in the language of the act, "re- muneration" for the rectification of the boundary-line be- tween Texas, Mexico, and the United States." In view of the former settlement upon its admission, Texas retained the ownership and control of all its public lands, then equal to the area of three of our largest States. In this way Texas was munificently cared for in the compromise. As soon as this measure, called the "Omnibus Bill," was reported, the furious discussion began. To say that it be- came the most excited and fiery dispute that was ever held on the Continent would only be repeating what was thought of it at the time and for many years afterwards. The con- test over it continued until past the middle of summer. It would be idle to attempt any lengthy review of it; for it would fill a dozen books. Calhoun died in its progress, and Jefferson Davis succeeded him as the Southern leader. President Taylor was known to be opposed to the agree- ment; but he, too, died, July 9, 1850, during the progress of the controversy, and was succeeded by President Fill- more. Congress adjourned in August, with the distress of the worn and harassing dispute still uppermost in the minds of those who could be tortured into the belief that these measures were absolutely necessary to save the country. Without faith, and much more of it than ever came to the lot of the common people, these earnest debates, furious excitements, palavers, proposed and accepted settlements, settled nothing. Not a single member of the Administration or either House of Congress had changed. If President Taylor had lived, the measures would not have passed in the form they did, not because of his anti-slavery opinions — for he had none, and was a Louisiana slaveholder — but he knew all the facts, and was independent enough to stand 442 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. by his honest belief, regardless of the slave-power or all the Southern leaders. He was a sensible man, and always de- spised shams and attempted deceits, and he would not have consented to the payment of any sum to Texas, or to the outrageous provisions of the slave-catching law, because its provisions were so obviously unjust. These outrageous measures were conceded through the demand of the slave- holders, to whom the sharpened slave-catcher's dragnet law gave all the advantages over any terrified and unsuspecting Negro. The reputation and standing of those who agreed to these pretentious settlements fell like ripened grain be- fore the sickle all over the free States and wherever honest men were permitted freedom of speech. Avarice had over- reached all bounds of sense or prudence; and these horrible laws, in place of benefiting the slaveholders in the capture and return of fugitives, aroused the people in a storm that could not be quelled. There can be little doubt that the passage and attempt to enforce this slave-catching law did more to arouse public opinion against slavery and open resistance to its outrageous demands, than the pleadings and arguments of earnest men had done for half a century. The appearance of the slave- catching officers in pursuit of some helpless Negro was the signal for some kind of resistance, which was usually suc- cessful in rescuing the runaway, and turning the community into as active Abolitionists as the slaveholders were propa- gandists. He was a poor and indifferent speaker, indeed, in those days who could not arouse the ire and indignation of the people to resolute and unshaken resistance against the at- tempt to enforce "the infamous slave-catcher's law," which made "every citizen a dog at the bidding of the slave- catchers." Calhoun, Davis, Benjamin, Toombs, and their followers, and the spirit of evil that enslaved men, could not have framed, built, or conjured into existence a more I TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 443 certain provocative of the pending terrible crisis between slavery and freedom. In their eagerness the slave-leaders prematurely pro- voked the crisis^ and invited the conflict. The number of fugitives, never estimated at above thirty thousand, was in- significant when compared to the millions held to slavery who were so rapidly increasing. Among those who were best informed in the border States there was never any doubt that, the number of free Negroes captured and sold South more than quadrupled all those escaping from slavery, for '"the free nigger' arrested had little chance of freedom before a court, where slavery was held to be a "divine institution." The marshal and slave-catchers could always prove him to be an escaped slave. By the example of the founders of our country and the humane slaveholders of that era, hundreds of thousands of slaves had been manumitted where they and their descend- ants were still living. When slavery became so much more profitable, several States changed their relation to it so as to prohibit by law the manumission of slaves, and some States further south prohibited the residence of free Ne- groes in them. It was these freedmen and their children, or descendants principally, that the drag-net of Fugitive- slave Laws was made to catch; and the helpless Negroes, who had no rights at law, who could not appear as witnesses, without means and under the ban of wrought-up sentiment against them, were remanded by the court about as regularly as they were accused and arrested. In many such a court they had a rousing fit of dissipation for every '^'nigger" taken from that mockery of justice to the hell of bondage on a cotton or sugar plantation. Because these freed people in many instances were flying from a fate more dreaded than death, and frequently getting away, the man hunters wanted to be more sure of their victims, and demanded such a one-sided law as the vicious 444 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. one of 1850. In most free State comnmnities it was re- garded so unjust and outrageous, that it aroused the people against it, and nothing short of superior force could have maintained it. In their haughty, imperious demands these slave-masters invited the conflict. They made threats, and through brow- beating and persuasions of various kinds secured the passage of the law. If it had been enforced and observed as law should be, it would have made all the States and Territories hunting-grounds for the slave-master, his menials and his hounds. This was done at a time, too, of such rapid development in the free States, when they were busy and contented and occupied with their own growing wants and necessities, they had with few exceptions decided that although slavery was a disturbing element in government, and a very objection- able system to most of them, yet for the sake of peace they would not allow any interference with it where it existed. Thej' would probably have submitted to its extension on the line of the Missouri Compromise, if the South had been con- tent to let it remain under such adjustment. The slave masters, confident of their strength with con- trol of the Administration, Fillmore having succeeded Tay- lor, felt more freedom from restraint than ever, and passed their fugitive-slave-hunting law. To the people of the free States it came as the gauntlet of defiance, not thrown on the ground merely, but in their faces. Peaceful as they were, they immediately took it up, and engaged in the contest for human rights as earnestly and stubbornly as the slave- holders did on their side of the contention. They deliber- ately protested that their slave-hunting law should not be executed in the free States. Congress continued to be the arena of men differing and disputing, seldom uniting for any purpose, or in any measure for the general good, but "to hold and defend my side as THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 445 well as you do yonrs." The slave adventurers had gone too far, much beyond what the more prudent of them consid- ered wise and feasible. They had provoked the storm too soon. They had even run counter to the judgment of sober, conservative men in their own section, in their desire to assure the safety of their institution. The free State people were an independent, free-think- ing, free-discussing, free-determining, and free-settling sort of a body politic. They took up the subject of the slave- catchers' law and its correlative questions involved. One of the slave captors said in a higher court, when questioned as to the purpose of the law, "It means to go and catch a nigger and hold him wherever you get him." These people discussed and determined, for instance, that the Virginia Eesolutions were correct, in the truth that all the States were equal, and consequently if Virginia could enslave a man, Ohio or Illinois could as well make a free man of him, Avhenever and wherever he came under their jurisdiction. They held that Congress could not lawfully enslave a man, as no such power existed, and the Constitution in no way conferred such right or authority. Such an obnoxious sys- tem as slavery could only exist by the constant operation of local law. This being true, the Fugitive-slave Law was unconstitutional and void as far as it might be attempted to remand a man into slavery from the free States of Ohio or Illinois, by reason of the presumed supremacy of the laws of the slave State without national authority to enforce it. Every man in the free States .being free, one as much as the other, there could be no slaves to remand, for slavery did not and could not exist within these or any of the free States; and these free citizens were not going to engage in the groveling occupation of slave-catching. These people discussed too, and rejected, the pretentious demand for a national remanding slave law by those who scarcely be- lieved in nationality under the Constitution, but held more 446 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. loyalty to the Virginia Eesolutions of 1798, which boldly asserted the right of a State's withdrawal or secession from the Union. So the firebrand of the sharpened slave-catchers' law was taken np and discussed, and thrown back in the face of the slave-extending propaganda. There were many thousands of free Negroes in the bor- der States, as related. These people, great and small, young and old, from 1845 to 18G0, were worth from one hundred to fifteen hundred dollars apiece in the cotton and sugar States, according to their qualifications and fitness for labor on the plantations. When we consider that it was cheaper and no more serious offense, and a hundred times less dan- gerous business, to steal a free Negro from Virginia, Ken- tucky, or Missouri, or from the free States along the Ohio Elver, than it was to take one from the perilous African coast through patrolling British and American fleets, it can easily be understood why the powerful body of slave-dealers demanded such a dragnet, a velocity-moving and virtually slave-making fugitive law. It was said in the slang of the time that there were "millions in it," and there is no doubt of its absolute truth. It was coming to be publicly defended by many of the lead- ers in the Gulf States, as much more humane "to take Negroes from the border States than from Africa, for the perils were less than bringing them from Africa." This justification of kidnaping men and women had the benefit of not having so many guns pointing the wrong way in the man-stealing business, which was very much to the comfort and ease of mind of the slave-dealer. It must not be under- stood that the border State slaveholders engaged in such nefarious business, although profiting by their slave raising and selling, as they did by their cattle-growing. They were as a body in society reputable and honorable. Neither must it be forgotten that the slave-traders were a class who were far below the men they sold, in character and sometimes THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 447 intelligence, and were unused to honorable mention any- where, even on the Gulf plantations. It should be observed that many writers of the events and happenings of those stirring times have often repre- sented the division for war as coming on unexpectedly and resulting from accidental causes, and not as the result of plans and deliberately-laid schemes or courses of action. It is true there were people then as now, who were so care- less and heedless as to have small knowledge or concern in current affairs, and there were leaders and others almost without number, who were often misled themselves, but were more often endeavoring to mislead the people; but this was incidental and not accidental, for there have been, and ever will be, such men in abundance. The leaders who planned the protection of slavery in the beginning, and their successors who later planned for power and its extension and supremacy, were never without full and ample preparation for the future. Calhoun, the Ehetts, Hunter, Mason, Toombs, Benjamin, Stephens, Davis, and the few whom they confided in, were never in doubt or uncertainty in plans, purposes, or course of conduct. There were times when unforeseen natural and providential ob- stacles, such as the discovery of extensive mineral wealth in the newly-acquired Mexican territory, the uncertain action of the free State people, the doubt of how far to rely on willing and half-willing leaders in the free States, did some- what confuse them, but only temporarily. In their high design the slavery institution, with its propaganda for its care, extension, and ascendency, was as complete, far-seeing, far-reaching, puissant, and powerful as the circumstances and the minds of its able and thoroughly trained and ex- perienced leaders could make it. Its defeat and disaster in the end was in no sense due to the lack of intellectual capac- ity and management on the part of its leaders. There was never a time in the progress of the half- 448 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. century contest on this vital issue when the patriotic leaders of the other side, the believers in the greatness, integrity, and continuity of our country, were not as well apprised of their progress and their intentions and their determined lines of policy as they were themselves. iVs sure as they had plans and purposes, so surely did Jackson, Benton, Cass, Clay, Webster, Chase, Seward, Douglas, and Lincoln fully understand and comprehend them. When the compromises were over and the slavery ques- tion was "settled permanentl}^," we had this Fugitive-slave Law, which to many a softened and wilting statesman was a more ragged and rasping garment than the shirt that poor old ISTessus had a desire to dispose of. This much that has been engaging our attention here, and the admission of Texas, her public lands and her ten million dollars, were the assets which slavery got in the final settlement and rounding up compromise of 1850. Freedom and free institutions had gained the admission of California as a free State, as was related every time when the benefits to the free States were enumerated, just as though California could have been other than a free State, where the majority in favor of it was so overwhelming as to be beyond question, and where no slaveholder would risk his slave in it for an hour. Hence this was one of freedom's victories won long before the compromise. The slave-trade, but not slaver}', had been abolished in the District of Columbia. This was horn-blowed as a won- derful concession to freedom, but aside from the name of it and the disgrace of its ever having been needed, there was little or nothing in it, because as freedom's advocates became bolder in Washington the danger of expediting a likely or independent slave man to Canada, where there were no remanding treaties or Fugitive-slave Laws, it was becoming prudent and common to "keep our niggers out of that Abo- lition hole at the Capital." THE MEN OF HT^ TIME. 449 Alexandria, just across the Potomac in full sight, was as good a slave-market, and the slave-code of Virginia was much better for "holding a nigger" in custody. The police system of Washington was about all demonstration, parade, brass buttons, and visored caps; whereas, the Virginia code and its trained men would "hold a nigger until he was sold or dead," and was about as much ahead of the Washington City police and their policy and regulations "for keeping niggers safely," as an express train is better than a one-ox North Carolina cart for speed. So we find that this concession to freedom was little more than an empty sound, and that the free State people had not made any progress in achieving the abolition of slavery in the District and Capital City of the Nation, and had gained little except the shifting of the Washington slave market to Alexandria. More slaves would have been liber- ated by the police inefficiency and negligence, and the more open route to New York and through it to Canada, by leav- ing the Capital slave-market unmolested. In summing up, this was found to be another almost valueless measure, for the traffic in Negroes between the States was not interfered with. There was, besides, the organization of the Territories of New Mexico and Utah, with no reference to slavery in the enabling acts, leaving the local Mexican law undisturbed, under which slavery did not exist. This was held to be one of the advantages gained for freedom and free institutions in these compromises. Perhaps it may have been so. It would be difficult, in the entire change of political control and management of the slavery question in the Territories, which came so soon after this declared settlement, to esti- mate and understand what were helps to freedom, and what were not. There were hidden purposes and very uncertain results in these territorial organizing acts, which when they are 29 450 A BE A HAM LINCOLN. explained with their accompanying facts, the reader can estimate the benefits accruing to freedom as well as any one. The natural obstacles of mineral belts and immense mountain ranges had arrested the extension of slavery directly west and southwest. Mountain ranges have never been favorable localities for slavery or bondage of any kind, of which history gives many examples. African slavery was never safe, and was not a luxury to the slave-owners in our mountain ranges of Virginia, West Virginia, Xorth Caro- lina, Tennessee, and Kentuck}'. The good Lord knew this when the mountains were hoisted into the upper air, with their valleys, gorges, rock-bound retreats, and forest-covered recesses, to be the refuge and hope of freedom, which they have remained. CHAPTER XX. THE slave-leaders, realizing the inhospitable nature of the southwest mountain and mineral regions to their insti- tution, but as fully impressed with the belief that it must be extended or perish, suddenly, even before the com- promises were so positively demanded in 1850, changed their plans for the movement of slavery into our new Territories to the south westward to forcing it inward and northwest- ward into the Territories of Kansas and iSTebraska — a col- lateral movement which had been planned by them as far back as 1820, when Missouri was admitted as a slave State. At the time all the vast region westward and up the Missouri Valley to the mountains was called a sandy desert plain; however, these experienced slave-leaders knew it to be a region of rich, fertile valleys and extending areas, on which millions of buffalo, deer, elk, and innumerable ani- mals lived and thrived, and on which thousands of Indians fattened and subsisted annually. This knowledge came to them through the patient investigation, daring expeditions, careful explorations, and the accurate reports made every year by our army officers, which these slavery leaders studied as carefully as they did the Scriptures for divine authority for their institution. Few people in general paid much attention to these, but there was never a line missed by these careful observers, who used the army as well as all the powers and agencies of the Government for their benefit, and who permitted the story of sandy desert plains and alkali wastes everywhere in the West, if they did not invent them. The admission of the Territories of Xew Mexico and 451 452 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Utah without slavery, the leaders claimed, was a surrender of their rights under the extending line of 1820, and conse- quently the act for their organization, one of the compro- mise measures of 1850, was in effect a repealing act, because they were in this act made free Territories, and this ren- dered void the westward Missouri line of 1830. This feature of the act was not disclosed in the debates, nor were the Territorial acts mentioned as having such an eifect, until some two or three years after their passage, when, as will appear, the Democratic party under its pro-slavery leaders, with most of the Whig leaders in full accord, declared it to be their belief. It was then discovered that these watchful leaders, in surrendering territory which they could not oc- cupy by reason of the natural obstacles mentioned, found and declared it a plausible reason for the abrogation of the Missouri line, and the introduction of slavery into territory from which they had agreed to its exclusion. When they had brought the people and the Government around to their alternative plan, as they believed they had done, it was then discovered that Calhoun and his followers had been long-headed enough in 1820 to get Missouri in as a slave State in the location that would serve its purpose best for extension when they needed it. President Taylor died July, 1850. In the December fol- lowing, when Congress reassembled, the five separate acts considered here were passed and became part of our history, l?iiown as the Compromise Measures of 1850. Thomas Cor- win, of Ohio, a leading ^Vhig senator from that State, who was an able and distinguished leader in the party, and Daniel Webster were taken into Fillmore's Cabinet. Fill- more and his advisers, together with Henry Clay, who was rapidly failing, and the Democratic pro-slavery leaders, all agreed to these measures as a full and satisfactory settle- ment, a final one on the question that had disturbed the Nation in some form or other from its foundation. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 453 It would be absurd enough now to provoke ridicule to relate how the older party leaders of the period were so earnestly impressed with the belief that it was what they held it to be, and a settlement that would be recognized as the most feasible and practicable, and one that would be observed as law and sound policy, that they denounced as agitators and Abolition disturbers, and even as disunion- ists, all who questioned it as the settlement which they so fully asserted as final on this great dividing issue. This was the belief of the parties of the day as declared, when the Whig party, with its great leaders, was dying in the service of slavery, and when the Democratic party was divid- ing and sundering from top to bottom on the same subject. It was the time when the party most trusted by the slavery propagandists would live ; and as they needed but one party, after both had submitted to them, the one not selected would necessarily perish. These compromise measures passed the Senate by thirty votes against twenty-five. The minority was not organized, but they were determined and stubborn men. Some real leaders on the side of freedom had reached the Senate, who made an earnest and memorable contest against slavery, one that proved the truth of the belief of the passing leaders, that the day of the last compromise with slavery had passed, but not in the way they believed or expected. Portentous changes were coming in the Senate. Calhoun was gone; Clay, Webster, Corwin, and Benton were retiring; Seward, Chase, and Hale, on positive anti-slavery ground, were in; and Sumner, Ben Wade, and Fessenden were soon to join them, with several as fully-determined anti-slavery men. The pro-slavery Whigs were retiring, passing away, or join- ing the Democratic party. Then it was that Judge Douglas and Jefferson Davis began their long, and to Douglas mortal, combat for the chief leadership of the Democratic party. The general belief prevailed, as the most designing lead- 454 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ers of all parties desired, except the unorganized anti-slavery factions, that the slavery question was permanently settled; but no one, leader, statesman, or citizen, could tell how. When probed to the bottom, it seemed to be a settlement in which both the Whig and Democratic parties had agreed to condemn everybody indiscriminately without qualification who were opposed to any one of their compromise measures, or who doubted their efficacy. An example of the diverging views of the time was told of a conversation between Benton, who was retiring, and Charles Sumner, who was then in 1852 just entering the Senate, on their first acquaintance. Benton remarked: "I have heard of you, sir, of your ability and conspicuous talent for debate, and I could have wished for your earlier appear- ance here, before all the great questions which have dis- turbed our peace so many years were settled.'' Sumner, who was about as haughty as Benton, replied: '"'Sir, I am indeed surprised to hear that you think any question con- cerning so great an evil as slavery is or can be settled before it is abolished or put in the way of abolishment. For myself, I shall treat and consider it as a great wrong and a very much unsettled evil." Benton, as he was walking away, said: "1 am really sorry for the young man; he has talent by all we see and hear of him, and if all our differences had not been settled for the century, a man like him might hope for distinction." This was the prevailing belief of about all except the conscience-believing anti-slavery people, who were usually quiet and discreet in the expression of their beliefs, know- ing they could accomplish so little. The few slavery chief- tains knew very well that the dispute and its ending was no settlement, and the high-sounding compromises were no more than deceitful palavers to distract the opposition while they were taking a firmer hold and a deeper clutch on free territory. They knew that the anti-slavery sentiment was THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 455 growing, and that the number of Free Soil advocates was rapidly increasing every day. They understood the actual situation of public affairs, because of their facilities for gaining the knowledge and their unembarrassed control of the Government for so many years. Through all of this they were preparing themselves for any emergency, to the point of being ready to extend slavery into any Territory through the peaceful operation of their scheming laws and decisions, or by the use of all the forces so well provided and at their disposal. They knew that there would be determined resistance and fearless opposition when the nature of their next move- ments was disclosed; but they had reached such control and preparation that they believed they were able to over- come all opposition, and to extend their institution wher- ever they desired. They had, under the leadership of Jef- ferson Davis, opposed the admission of California, but in no such earnest way as to jeopardize any of the "Compro- mise Measures.'"" They were discreet enough not to dis- close their intentions as to what their next movements would be until after the near-approaching Presidential elec- tion of 1852, when the}' would time their movements to meet the results. Claj', then in the closing years of his long career, held these Measures to be a final settlement of all the differ- ences between the sections, and admonished his friends and followers everj^where to give them hearty and cordial support. Webster, Benton, and many of the most capable men of the da}', severely censured all who disagreed with them; and all those who would not accept them as final were denounced vehemently as agitators. Abolitionists, and disunionists. It was one of the ironies of fate that, as Clay was end- ing his brilliant life with these opinions and advice to his followers, Archibald Dixon, a pro-slavery Whig, was elected, 456 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and succeeded him in the Senate. He had no scruples in declaring, as soon as he was elected, that he would vote to introduce slavery into any Territory whenever there was opportunity, which he as faithfully endeavored to carry out. When this was done in Kentucky, and Sumner suc- ceeded Webster from Massachusetts, the sentimentalism of these great leaders had gone out of the slavery question forever. The scales had fallen from the eyes of the voters in both States when Dixon and Sumner confronted each other in the Senate. They were not in any mood to compro- mise, or to busy themselves in any way about continuing the compromises supposed to be in existence, but to con- tend for their rights as they and their people understood them. It was surely a relief to the country that these Compromise Measures were held to be a finality and the end of compromising on the subject by both sections. As the world had gone and will go with men, there was always a certainty that a conilict between slavery and free- dom was inevitable. As this had been in the minds of so many capable men for so long, it was merciful to make the contention as soon as it was possible for the Nation to do so. The fault was, and will ever be an example in similar contests, that the people were so easily deceived that they permitted the slave-power — the alien, and al- ways the enemy of free Government — to remain in power so long that our liberties were well-nigh squandered. When the body of the people ascertained our danger, when alarmed at its continuing power and encroachments, we had to rise and shake off the rising monster in an ocean of blood that washed out the sins of the oppressors. Mr. Clay died at his home in Kentucky, June 29, 1852, at the ripe age of seventy-five years. There must have been a providence far beyond human wisdom that made a temporizer and compromiser like Clay the most prominent THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 457 leader, with his unsurpassable political strategy, for almost half a century, against the most positive, determined, and uncompromising friends of freedom and free government on the earth. The Nation was to be builded. Its Continental stretch was to be provided for. The African was to be enslaved and kept so until other things were done and the Nation had gained the strength to stand the shock of the awful conflict for his freedom. But as he labored and suffered through this transforma- tion, he was to see a better civilization, that may yet in- crease and spread its benign influence into a more benighted condition of his race and the darkest continent in exist- ence. No man like Clay has lived or been among us who could have kept the contending sections from a clash and eruption, or a blow somewhere that would have brought a settlement or a conflict at arms long before it came. He was the peace-keeper of the Nation in its boyhood and adolescence. He did not lack the personal courage to fight; and if the slavery-contention had been his personal one, he would have fought it to a conclusion at any time; but he did fear the awful consequences of the war that was to come to the Nation, and could fire the dreaded calamities into men's minds in such ardor and to such heroic purpose that the most relentless men on either side stood transfixed and appalled. They saw this wonderful man, and paused at his mag- ical power, who appeared and became what he was not naturally, a compromiser for fift}'^ years, to save his country from destruction by its contending factions, and to lose the Presidency three or four times in his trial to be on both sides. He stood on the middle ground so long that no party could have elected him President; and still he was so powerful and winning in his greatness of soul and soar- ing intellect that no party could antagonize the living Clay, and bring on the conflict of arms until he passed away. 458 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Shortly after his death, Mr. Lincoln delivered an ora- tion on his life and character, which was, of course, a brilliant and grandly expressive discourse, full of the life and soul of the great leader. It was a memorable occasion, and an address that passed all limits of description, with Lincoln at his best, paying his loving tribute to the memory of his friend and leader, one so sincerely and tenderly held in mind, that it took all his masterful powers, and was so full of generous-hearted sympathy for the departed statesman that he and his audience, unused to such strength, power, and tenderness, wept like little children. It should be mentioned as evidence of the prevailing belief of the time that, as strong an advocate of freedom as Mr. Lincoln was known to be, he believed as Clay had taught, that these Compromise Measures of 1850 had set- tled the contending parties down to the belief, however objectionable it might be to either section, yet so binding by reasons of the general and long-continued discussions and the no less professed general acceptance of the different measures agreed upon, the Nation would be compelled to abide by these for a long period of years at least. In addition to this, it was the time above all others when he declared himself "out of politics if I can do as I please." He had become devoted to the thought and study that comes to busy and hurried men, w^hen he was pushing his reasonings into the higher realms of thought and philoso- phy. This was shown in his satisfaction when, after a two- days' search all over Bloomington, the MTiter found him a well-worn copy of Bacon's Essays, when he observed, "I have served the public, and have been honored as much as any citizen should expect, and in the future I intend to be governed by the best advice I have ever had, and take up, as I can, for reading and study the best and most con- cise authors in literature and reasoning." THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 459 To those who were independent enough, and had in- vestigated the slavery system and its relations to our Gov- ernment, the attitude of parties and their leaders, there was no end to surprise, astonishment, and disappointment. The privilege of free speech and free discussion was eliminated from many communities, the opposition rising in severity from ridicule, in most of them, to mobs, riots, and murder, like that against Lovejoy at Alton, Illinois, and St. Louis, who had three printing presses thrown into the river, and himself murdered in 1837, without the arrest of any one of the culprits. Something of the apathy and indifference to the enormi- ties and iniquities of the system prevailing can be better understood when such villainy and murder were condoned and overlooked in a free State; when, too, Garrison and Phillips were mobbed and their meetings were dispersed in the Puritan city of Boston. It was so unpopular to be known as an Abolitionist that all timid people dreaded contention on the subject so much as to shrink from pro- tecting those who had the courage to denounce such crimi- nal outrage and wrong. This widespread dread and sup- pression of free speech was the desire — and a very distinct one — of the slave-leaders, who had succeeded so far in the Nation from 1844 to 1853-54 that about every political leader with a respectable following was teaching and ad- vising submission to the "settled condition of the slavery question." The man who had the grit and determination to strip off the coverings from the horrid skeleton did well to be no more than ridiculed, howled down, or laughed at, or, at the very best, pitied by those who were too timid to interfere in the face of a mob, to help defend the most sacred rights of an American citizen. Another startling feature of the subject was the negli- gence and political cowardice of our ablest leaders in the free and border States, like Webster, Clay, Benton, and 460 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Douglas. Without consideration of what might be the agreements in compromises, men were entitled to their liber- ties and the free expression of their opinions and the pro- tection of law in doing so. These leaders should have known that, however anxious they were for an amicable adjustment, they could not prevent a sharp contention, perhaps a collision, in the Territories. It was surprising, indeed, that the experienced statesmen named, who cer- tainly possessed the wisdom and learning of their day in high degree, ever thought for a moment that they had set- tled the differences between the free and slave States. It was strange that they imagined they, or others, could settle a sharply and well defined contention between ex- cited factions by any sort of indecisive action, such as was claimed by these compromises. At their best they only shifted the slavery issue against freedom from Congress to the new Territories. Strange and more unaccountable* it was that they, skilled in learning and the law, believers in freedom, and detesting slavery, arrogated to themselves and delegated to others the authority to enslave any man, or return him into slavery. It was a presumptuous one, indeed, and no more than an assumption of authority which God never gave to man, to enslave his fellow-man. This truth was emphatically asserted in our Declaration of Independence as funda- mental, and it was as binding as the Constitution, when it declared that "God created all men free, and endowed them with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." There is nothing like slavery or remanding slave-laws in this, and it is one of the contrarieties of men and proof of the slow, emerging progress of civilization that people by the hundreds of thousands, believing themselves to be Christians, were di- rectly or indirectly sustaining the worst form of slavery that had ever been known. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 461 It is a wonder that such men as Clay, Webster, Benton, and Douglas were blinded and prejudiced, as they came to be, and that Lincoln did not rise in the majesty of his un- equaled powers against slavery long before he did. In his case, however, it was a delay of only a few years. The times were not ready. God's adjustment of law and the rights of men was coming in one of his terrible judgments, when the footprints of his heroes would cover four hundred years of the struggle for human liberty. In this political calm, with the slavery question de- clared to be settled, as it was by both leading parties, the Democratic party met in Baltimore, June 1, 1852. The three candidates for President were Douglas, Buchanan, and Pierce. Douglas was only thirty-nine years of age, but was even then the strongest leader in his party. Buchanan was about sixty. He had a lifetime's experi- ence behind him in high political positions. Franklin Pierce was in his prime, at about fifty years of age. He had been a representative in Congress from his State of New Hampshire. He had received distinguished favors from Polk's Administration, which gave him his principal notoriety as a brigadier-general in the Mexican War. He was a cultivated, polite gentleman, with enough attention to his personal appearance and dress to live up to his par- ticular attitude and military reputation. He had a desire to serve in the only line where distinction was open to such men, which then was to serve the slavery-leaders with all the zeal of a new convert. He had been what was called one of the "political briga- diers" under Scott, who had no toleration for such men. However, it was said that he had shown conspicuous cour- age and gallantry on the field, where he was a fine-appear- ing, faultlessly-dressed, and a well fixed-up soldier, with manners and bearing and influence, all of which, with his easy-bending ideas on slavery, made him a formidable can- 462 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. didate, the one whom the Southern leaders selected and nominated. William A. Graham, an able Southern senator, from North Carolina, was named on the ticket with Pierce for Vice-President. The Whig Convention met in Baltimore on the 16th of June. The candidates were Fillmore, who very much de- sired the nomination, and was using all the patronage of his Administration to effect it. Daniel Webster, who was then Secretary of State, was a candidate, and, of all the Whig leaders, was the best entitled to the nomination, if long party service, devotion to, and unequaled achievement for, his country in maintaining the strength of its funda- mental law, and commanding ability, could so entitle any man. Clay was at home, in his last days, where he died on the 29th of June, only a few days after the Convention adjourned. General Scott, who was then an old man, in the infiinnity of age, was an incidental candidate, but without the least anxiety on his part. He had been ambitious, and felt that he deserved the Whig nomination in 1848, when Taylor was nominated over as popular candidates as Clay and Scott. The old general had devoted the most of his long life to military and very little to other public affairs. He had been the true type of an American soldier, and as such had been the hero and leader in two of our principal wars, besides his campaigning against the Indians. He was some- what vain, and he felt that he had the right to be; for he had won endless fame and unparalleled victories with American soldiers who had grown up under his watchful care and the instruction of a lifetime, until our small armies had won victory on every field on which they fought; and he delighted in being considered the military successor of Washington. Fillmore's followers did not have enough votes to nomi- nate him; but, being the craftsman, and managing the crew that was piloting the ship of State, his crew could be THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 463 held in tow, and defeat any other candidate as they wished. Fillmore saw his inevitable defeat, and, being too narrow- minded to be a statesman, and too ungenerous to remem- ber the friend who had given his Administration the only repute it ever had, he turned, in his ingratitude, defeated Webster, and with his easily-manipulated following nomi- nated General Scott, who had very little desire for the nomi- nation. Webster may not have deserved the nomination on the basis of merit that a President should be true to his party and the people who elect and sustain him. Perhaps he was not; but, as related to Franklin Pierce, who was nominated and elected, it was as if you had tried to draw your lines between intellectual majesty of the highest order and glittering buttons, broadcloth, curled hair, lace, and feathers. The truth is, that Webster was broken two years before the Convention. He had no State, like Kentucky or Missouri, as Clay and Benton had, even partially to sustain him. The slave communities demanded even better serv- ice than Clay or Benton had ever given them in behalf of slavery, when their service had been given to their detri- ment and loss of availability for office, and, worse, by the sacrifice of the great principles that were their strongest elements. In Webster's downfall the relations were reversed. His State of Massachusetts had not deserted him until this breaking-down period in the career of America's greatest forensic orator and philosopher of laws and Constitutions. He had the strongest and most faithful body of friends in all New England that ever followed any leader on this Continent, and they remained so until they could follow him no further, because he faltered and fell in his ambi- tion to be President. In 1850 he was weakening, and it was evident that his great powers were declining. This may have been the true cause of his political submission to a system so universally obnoxious to his friends that they 464 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. abandoned him in pity and disappointment. However, his defeat by Fillmore and his office-holding recruits was so cruel that, coupled with the heartless surrender of the Whig party to slavery, it wrought out the swiftest oblitera- tion ever inflicted on any political organization that had elected a President. John P. Hale, a senator from ISTew Hampshire, and George W. Julian, of Indiana, were nominated by the Free Soil party at Pittsburg, August 11, 1853. The Democratic party declared its belief in the Virginia State-rights Resolutions of 1798 and fidelity to the Compro- mise Measures of 1850, and profusely and wordfully de- nounced all agitation of the slavery question as dangerous. The Whig party accepted the compromises as final, promis- ing submission, but resolving earnestly for a system of in- ternal improvements. The Free Soilers declared their hos- tility to slavery in general, and especially protested against its extension into any of the Territories. They adjourned, with the knowledge that theirs was the only party Conven- tion of the year whose members believed in and faithfully supported their declaration of principles. The campaign was a dull, spiritless one, and resulted in the election of Pierce and the complete triumph of the compromising pro-slavery policy. There were some strange and fantastic endings of the almost unanimous settlings of that year, which were all overturned so soon afterwards, and they left little doubt of the truth that nothing had been so well and definitely settled as the compact consoli- dation of all the slave States in the interest of slavery and its extension. General Scott, although a slaveholder, and brought up in Virginia, with slavery in its more humane forms all about him, would have seemed to be the logical candidate of the pro-slavery interests. But their leaders knew the old hero and his beliefs on the subject of slavery, and how THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 465 he would stand on the question of secession, very much bet- ter than the general public; and for the best of reasons they did not trust him. There was too much sturdy loyalty to liis country and genuine patriotism and pride of American achievement in the make-up of the old chieftain to suit the designs and purposes of the daring and venturesome Southern leaders; and no man in the country knew them better than he did. Pierce was as wax in their fingers, and, with both par- ties being in their favor, they had little, if any, difficulty in electing him. One of the strangest features of the cam- paign was, not that Seward, Weed, and Greeley supported Scott, but that they supported the compromising, pro-slavery platform on which Scott made what canvass was made for the Whig party. Horace Greeley, who had established and won considerable success, was an ardent supporter of Scott. These three, the most prominent anti-slavery leaders left in the old Whig party, surprised a great many believers in the anti-slavery cause in their support of Scott, though he was known as only a moderate upholder of the slave-system. They averred that they supported Scott because they had abiding faith in the old hero's higher qualities, that placed him above platforms and resolutions. They could not have accomplished much if they had acted differently; but their course gives the strongest proof of the subjugation of the Xorth to the foul compromises of the pro-slavery leaders. The result of the election was that, having selected the Democratic party to carry out the plans of the propaganda, the Whig party not being needed, and doing no more than carry on a political mas- querade, it went to pieces; and its members entered other organizations, to contend for the ISTation or against it, as their inclinations led them. Pierce and King received 254 electoral votes and 1,601,474 popular votes; Scott and Graham received 1,386,- 30 466 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 578 popular votes; Hale and Julian received no electoral votes and 156,149 popular votes. The country was in an era of apparent peace and pros- perity. Gold and silver in great quantities, and other valu- able metals, had been discovered, and were added to the already existing attractions of the great, unexplored West. These, with the adventuresome spirit of our people, were enticing hundreds of thousands to the West and to the boundless Pacific region, with its ''sun-setting splendors." The real forces, the most powerful ones for the agita- tion of the vexed question, that could neither bo compro- mised with nor controlled, were those moving multitudes, with all the implements of freedom, who would not allow slavery to go with them into any of the new Territories. This strong, disturbing element against the peaceful ex- tension of slavery was altogether uncalculated and unpro- vided for. The pro-slavery leaders, seeing its alarming and rapid progress, were suddenly aroused. The movement was a bad one for them, and the slave-propaganda called an assemblage of their -highest council to act upon it at once. If the South had been a free people, with privilege and power to enforce their beliefs, this would have been a gathering of leaders and men from the Chesapeake to the Eio Grande. It did not become a popular movement of the people because their leaders had no desire that it should. The South was an aristocracy, and no such Government ever held its people to better submission or more complete obe- dience and control under a few men and one dictator than this same pro-slavery power. The management was a pe- culiar one. Until 1861 it had no declared officers and no public records. Its leaders were known only by their acts in their absolute control of all public affairs in their section. The local leaders were those who could control parties in the slave States. At Washington there was one dictator and a few prominent leaders whom he called into his coun- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 467 cil. These latter held that authority, and lived at the Na- tional Capital during life, or as long as they held offices for their States. These — the dictator and a few leaders — mas- tered the slave States, framed their policies, and planned their contingent conspiracy several years ahead. When it became necessary to carry out their designs, these few — not more than a half dozen in chief council — retired to Montgomery early in 1861, with no change from the propa- ganda at Washington, except that, when it was transferred, it became retitled "The Confederate States." In this move- ment they had no increased prerogatives, save what the leaders were assuming in projecting war against our coun- try by its servants and sworn defenders. With the kind of management which we have mentioned, the plan for the change in the slavery movement into the Territories was made under the absolute control of Calhoun in his last days, and Jefferson Davis, as successor and dic- tator, with Stephens, Benjamin, and Breckinridge, and the very few whom they called into their council, agreeing, as all of them had to do, to the unquestioned authority of Davis. They made every preparation for the coming terri- torial plan of operations, but directing and controlling the introduction of this remarkable change so as to make it appear to be the voluntary act of provident leaders and parties, in which they assumed that they exercised no un- usual control. In the changed relations of slavery to the progress and development of our Western Territories, these leaders deter- mined upon a repeal or utter disregard of the Missouri Compromise, which, they claimed, was set aside and re- versed by the compromises of 1850. This was a plausible claim to all who would agree that any right existed any- where under our National laws to take or establish slavery in any forming or free Territory. The slave-leaders claimed that these acts of 1850 conceded the right to slave- 468 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. holders to take their slaves, like any other property, into any Territory of the United States, in proof of which Cali- fornia had been admitted as a free State, and the Terri- tories of New Mexico and Utah had been organized, the former south and the latter north of the line made running westward by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and that the territory out of which California was made was about equally divided by the line. They claimed that in all of these the principle had been recognized that if the inhabit- ants so desired and determined, they could introduce slav- ery, which was protected everywhere under the Constitution and directly affirmed in their drastic Fugitive-slave Law, This was a plausible and apparently reasonable claim, not because of the slave-rendition law, or any or all of the acts of 1850, which were all favorable to slavery, but because of the long course of toleration and concession so effectually confirmed and agreed to by these compromise settlements. The slaveholders' contention was so fair and plausible on its face that, if no great moral issue had been involved, their asserted right would have been generally recognized. However, as it was, it marked a complete revolution in party and political beliefs. The Whig and Democratic parties, as such, could not contend against the changed Southern policy of slavery expansion; for they had tacitly, if not positively, agreed to these slavery-extending settlements. The slaveholding people held the further advantage that, in the long struggle, with the well-known weaknesses and am- bitions of great men, and those of a great many small ones, the South and its "^domestic institutions" had made thou- sands of converts so successfully to 1850 that they had proselyted all the leaders of consequence in the old par- ties — all, indeed, whom they had not unhorsed and excom- municated, as they had done the greater ones: Van Buren, Cass, and Benton. President Pierce's Cabinet was a piece of intriguing THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 469 handiwork in crafty skill and ability that fully demonstrated who Jefferson Davis was without further explanation to those who understood what was to be the changed conduct of the propaganda under Calhoun's successor. It was a soldier's policy in part; for Davis held to that largely on account of the rigid discipline and easy detail of carrying out his plans and purposes. He had been a soldier most of his life, and believed in a political policy that expected nothing less than obedience from any man in any political position; and this remained, throughout his life, his gen- eral plan and policy of civil administration. The easy manner and fine address, the courtly demeanor and plausible ways of the Southern gentleman, such as Cal- houn had been, was changed and supplanted by the prompt and almost abrupt style and the positive ways of the new leader, who decided or delayed action without discussion, certainly so whenever it pleased him. He could be re- served and wait and control himself, but not with the ease or suavity of the kingly South Carolinian ; but when he did so, he did it under stress of mind that bore unconcealed evidence of his forced restraint. The South had returned to complete power, and the Pierce Administration, organized under Davis, avowed it without apology. Governor William L. Marcy, of New York, who was the strongest and most capable man in it from the free States, was Secretary of State, in which his relation to slavery was general only. He was a man of learning and distinction be- fore he held office; and his long experience in public affairs made him one of the ablest statesmen of his day. Jefferson Davis was the most important member, and so much so that the Administration was under his control. He was personally Secretary of War, the place of all oth- ers in which he could manage, supervise, and contrive for the South in the new adventure of forcing slavery into the Territories. With his military experience, his well- 470 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. earned name of a daring and courageous soldier, and his personal acquaintance with almost every officer in the little army, he was in position where he was able to render his section more useful service than any other man of his time — a fact which will develop in due process. Caleb Gushing, of Massachusetts, was made the Attorney- General. He was a learned man — one who came as near being a standard authority on laws, customs, rules, and regulations as any man who ever sauntered up and down the Capital, or became a standard authority at Washington. He was a close student, a lawyer of cunning and capacity. He was easy, facile, and malleable to almost every form of belief, and so adroit as to be seldom found in error. At the time he was the only New England lawyer of any prominence whatever who could be induced to interpret and enforce the odious slave-catchers' law. He had, too, the "cheek and the jaw" that Yankeedom abhorred about as much as the capacity to write a pro-slavery opinion in the shadow of Faneuil Hall. He could and did, as he be- lieved it was his duty as the law-interpreter of the Jef- ferson Davis and Pierce Administration, write out an elabo- rate opinion establishing the Constitutionality of the Fugi- tive-slave Law of 1850. At the same time he sustained the policy of the Virginia State-rights' Eesolutions, which, by adoption, was a part of the Democratic creed. This was a thing which no other man ever attempted, the harmoniz- ing of irreconcilable principles. These resolutions declared the right of any State, on its own election, to secede from the Union. This was ab- surd enough if the country was to grow to strong and inde- pendent nationality. Still, obnoxious and objectionable as it was and seems now, if the slavery hierarchy that Cush- ing served so zealously, in its turn, had prevailed, then New England would have been grateful to Cushing and his pro-slavery Democracy for the ready means afforded to THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 471 secede from the liberty-destroyed kingdom which they were endeavoring to make out of the United States. Gushing became famous, and served in and against every party of his time. He gained more celebrity as a man who could cover up his real purpose in some plausible, unobjectionable form than "the highest-priced lobby law- yers ever could." He came near becoming eminent, or, at least, reaching eminent office — the chief-justiceship — by his facility, wonderful store of knowledge, and plausibility that seemed to have no end; but the Senate, on examination, found the smut of the Davis-Pierce Administration upon him, and asked President Grant to withdraw his nomination, without publication of the evidence, which he did. He served Davis so faithfully that he remained his friend until he went into insurrection. Some thought he did so afterwards. He served the pro-slavery party until it had neither office nor favor to give him, when, like most of the lonely New England Democrats, he joined the Eepublicans; from which time he served the anti-slavery party with as much zeal and efficiency as he had served the others. What- ever might be said, this was often done to good purpose; for with his immense store of knowledge and experience, which was more than most people gave him credit for, there were times when his services were of great value. Poor Gushing, who was pitied by many, had the learning, knowledge, and qualifications to have been a great man and eminent in his day, but he was without courage and integ- rity of purpose. He was not a bad man, for at the bottom he loved his country. He was a highly-talented man, whose learning did not bring him wisdom, rather craft and cun- ning, which in the end brought nothing but lost hopes and disappointment. After the overthrow and flight of the pro- slavery leaders from Washington, the courage that came of reputable position and standing left him, and he finally settled down in his niche as "The Prince of the Lobby." 472 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. With everything at hand and all the powers of the Government under control, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial, from Congress and the Supreme Court down to the attorneys and marshals in the Territories, the propaganda had full and complete control under the name of Democracy. They seemed to have the slavery-stricken Eepublic bound hand and foot, with no human light or in- formation that promised relief to the oppressed ISTation and people. President Pierce was inaugurated March, 1853, when he said in part: "The policy of my Administration will not be governed by any timid forebodings of evil from ex- pansion. Indeed, it is not to be disguised that our attitude as a Nation and our position on the globe render the ac- quisition of certain possessions not within our jurisdiction eminently important for our protection, if not for the pres- ervation of the rights of commerce and the peace of the world." As President Polk had done so much in the way of ex- pansion, it was Pierce's ambition, as it has been that of several other Presidents, to do something of the kind in his day. It was his to make a movement to get Cuba, which was generally considered by the pro-slavery authorities a desirable acquisition, by purchase or even by a little war and a big "Peace Commission." The whole of his term was spent in designs and plans and well-drawn-out negotiations in quest of obtaining the island. It was Davis's plan of power and empire that would have eventually made the West Indies a part of the obliterated free Republic. It was defeated by never being authorized by Congress, and the pro-slavery party had to wait because no party in those days recognized the competence of any authority except Con- gress. Pierce in his message continued, "Regarding slavery, it was and is recognized by the Constitution;" and again: "I will enforce the compromise measures of 1850. I fervently THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 473 trust that the question is at rest, and that no sectional, ambitious, or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosperity." This was the authentic and definite declaration of the Davis regime, that all things were ready, and slavery would soon be introduced into the Territories west of the Missouri Eiver. There was no party then in existence in our country that could contend with or against slavery. The political scheming of more than half a century had made them all servants of the degrading system in some degree or other. Soon after the discovery of gold in California in 1849, at least as early as 1850, there was pressing need for the organization of the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, Protection was needed for the better exploration of the vast plains and majestic mountain ranges that only a few white men had ever seen. The people were making numer- ous settlements on the western side of the Missouri and the beautiful valleys coming up to it, and the Indians of the unknown, unexplored regions needed looking after, for pro- tection from each other, and enumeration of some kind, and to be kept from war and marauding, as well as could be done by our very crude and cruel Indian system. Above all these "the gold fever'' and other allurements had caused an emigration of almost one hundred thousand people across the plains annually. In this condition of things, with so many interests requiring attention, terri- torial organization was a necessity, and had been so from 1849-50; but it was purposely delayed until the propaganda had firmly inaugurated the Pierce Administration and made everything else ready. CHAPTER XXI. THIS brings us to the beginning of the mightiest up- heaval in all our history. Our institutions up to that time, the civilizing m.arch westward to the Mississippi and the Missouri that had made new settlements, villages, and cities, were in rapid progress, with people in moving multitudes. They had taken with them their wagons, im- plements, and stock, and the means of carrying on their in- dustries, along with the arms that were necessary for their defense during the migration and at their homes. These mighty moving populations took along with them the tools of industry, road-building, and agriculture. They pushed westward with their guns, axes, plows, and hammers. Besides these, there were in every mover's wagon Bibles, Church Disciplines, the Cathechisms, Confessions of Faith, Pilgrim's Progress, Perseverance of the Saints, and hymn- books; and the children had the little outfit they used in the country schools from whence they came, having perhaps their grammars, Murray or Kirkham, some old arithmetics that were worn and thumbed up to the "Eule of Three," school readers, and the old blue-covered elementary spelling- books "that Mr. Webster published and sent westward by the million copies." On all these were based our future civilization. Slavery, like all systems of law-protected oppression and corruption, had fastened itself on the existing parties and their leaders so deeply that they were dulled and blunted against all efforts at reform, and so cankered with profits, cruelties, and injustice against a helpless race that reform 474 THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 475 was an impossibility in either one of the old parties. The building up of a new, stronger party that would have the courage and capacity to fight slavery from top to bottom as a crime against the enslaved, and no less against the free American people, a system of labor that would destroy all other systems and eventually the Nation itself, was needed, and these emigrant wagons were filled with a class of men out of which to form the coming anti-slavery party. This new party had to grow up among the free and inde- pendent people of the free States. It did not and could not expect to receive support from the politicians of other organizations who lived on the profits of their trade and the intrenched power in and about the National Capital. There were many men and many movements combining to form such a party and give it strength. There were Garri- son and his uncompromising paper in Boston; Thurlow Weed and his Journal Sit Albany; Senators Seward, Chase, Sumner, Wade, and Fessenden; Horace Greeley, with his Tribune, one of the strongest and most fearless champions of freedom in the beginning; and Abraham Lincoln, risen to the highest leadership he could reach in the Democratic State of Illinois. These were the coming leaders against slavery in some form in 1853, and were insignificant in power compared with the Democratic party, that could pass any measure it desired through Congress, and expect its faithful execution and friendly interpretation in the courts. Slavery was in those days, from 1850 to its downfall, in the heydey of its power. It was not a system of labor that involved much of sentiment or theories, but a plain, matter-of-fact business to use and sell the Africans like cattle, and take all the profits of their labor. As control of political organization was necessary to care for and protect the entire system, it became as usurping, ravenous, and oppressive as the false and ^\Tetched system upon which it was based. The slave population of our country was then about four 476 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. millions, and at the low estimate of $100 each, their value was $400,000,000 ; but as they were bringing profits amount- ing on an average to $200 a head for every working man and woman, it brought in at least $250,000,000 annually above the cost of subsistence. With this demonstration it can be seen that if Negroes were kept a safe property invest- ment, well protected under law, they were actually worth over $1,000 apiece, or an aggregate value of $2,500,000,000. This computation is made on a basis of ten per cent, to which could be added the value of the increase, which was as much as ten per cent, making a total of three billions of money in Negro slavery. With such enormous values recognized as existing in men and women, the profits of which were gathered regu- larly every year by their few thousand owners, it can be well understood and easily shown in detail why it was no small or ordinary undertaking to raise up a new party able to contend against a power so great and so strongly in- trenched, that to human insight and calculation it seemed unassailable. The powers of the slavery system were great, the leaders had reached stronger control and influence than they ex- pected, which made them more grasping and tyrannical in their exercise of power. They dreaded as one of their chief dangers the competition of free labor, and sought by all their means and ingenuity to exclude it from their States and to degrade and reduce its influence in the Nation. They refused in every way, social and political, to sustain or pro- tect free labor ; but schemed and planned, through low tariffs and large foreign imported manufactures, their free-trade laws and all kinds of unfriendly legislation, to break down and cripple free labor wherever it was possible. Our import taxes ran down so low in the pro-slavery Democratic Administrations to 1860, that the Government was running in debt in time of peace, and its credit impaired THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 477 by low rates and other faulty and defective revenue laws purposely so made. The current expenses of the Govern- ment were paid in part out of the proceeds of bonds sold in the market, drawing twelve per cent interest and bringing no more than eighty cents on the dollar, a discount of twenty per cent, whereas under any well-ordered financial policy five, or at the highest six, per cent bonds should have sold at par. Besides, in the peaceful and prosperous condition of our country, aided by the abundant gold and silver dis- coveries, the issue of bonds was inexcusable. This came as the result of pro-slavery schemes and maladministration of their leaders. Tariff laws may be so unjustly discriminative as to build up and enrich favored persons and monopolies; nevertheless when they are made so low as to discriminate against our home labor or production they are as bad or worse, so that in making tariff and excise laws a happy medium needs to be preserved. In the winter of 1853-54, in some dubious, unrecorded, and never-since-explained sort of method the slave-leaders determined to provoke the long-approaching conflict to re- peal the Missouri Compromise of 1820. If slavery had been one of the rights protected by the Constitution, as conceded by both the leading parties of that day, the repeal would not have been any more than what might have been ex- pected. Whatever might have been the reasonings one way or the other, or the concessions made under subterfuges that always needed skilled and legal interpretation, here was a plain breaking asunder, a violated agreement of thirty-three years standing. No better reason was given than that it had been repealed in effect, in accordance with the principles and spirit of the compromises of 1850. To tell the truth that reveals something of the crafty hidden work of the slave power, the Missouri Compromise had been repealed three years before the people knew it! 478 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Joshua E. Giddings, of Ohio, the sturdy anti-slavery leader for so many years in the House of Eepresentatives, being asked during the discussion how the bill as it was before the repealing amendment was proposed agreed with the Whig and Democratic party platforms, replied: "The limit of slavery to the south line of the Missouri Territory and west was thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, and was established by the Missouri Compromise prohibition. This law stands perpetually, and I do not think it would receive any validity by re-enactment. There I leave the matter. It is very clear that the territory included in the treaty ceding the Louisiana Territory must be forever free unless the law is repealed." This declaration of Giddings further alarmed the slave-leaders, and they determined that, regard- less of all consequences, the Missouri restriction should in explicit terms be repealed. This discussion and reopening of the question made hundreds of thousands of people in the free States angry, and raised up Abolitionists in some stage of development all over the country. The condemnation of free voters in the press and through every other avenue of public ex- pression was more emphatic and determined than it had ever been against any single movement of the slave power. However concealed and remote other schemes had been, the drift and effect of this one was clear and distinct enough for the free State people to comprehend. The notable issue concerning the repeal of this compro- mise line was the culminating encroachment of the slave power that aroused the free States to the imminent danger so near at hand. To that time the South had gained three States out of the Louisiana cession of territory. These were Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas. They received also all of the Spanish cession of 1819, which was admitted as the State of Florida; and Texas was admitted with the privilege of making four other States as the result of the Mexican THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 479 conquest. While these five of the slave States were ad- mitted, Iowa and California were the only free States gained by the cessions during the same period. In 1854 the plans of the propaganda were suddenly changed, so far as the public had knowledge, and the de- liberate scheme was put in operation to make Kansas an- other slave State out of a part of the territory of the Louis- iana Purchase. In following the few facts, it appears that in the condition of the Territories some kind of an organ- ization had become a necessity. The few people living in them had for years sent delegates to Congress, pleading for a territorial organization. Thousands of emigrants were crossing, and great numbers were getting ready to settle in them. Judge Douglas was chairman of the Senate Com- mittee on Territories, and Eichardson, one of his friends from Illinois, a member of the House of Representatives, was also chairman of the House Committee on Territories. In this condition these two held firm control of all legis- lation for the Territories, and would do so unless they were removed by party action. On the 24th of January, 1854, Judge Douglas introduced an act in the Senate for the organization of the Territory of Nebraska; later it was so amended as to make two Terri- tories out of it, dividing it into Kansas and Nebraska. The striking feature of the measure was that one section de- clared that the Compromise of 1820 was void, because it was inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States or Territories as recog- nized by the Compromise Measures of 1850. Previous to this action of Judge Douglas, on February 2, 1853, Richard- son, of Illinois, had introduced bills into the House of Rep- resentatives for three Territories, which were debated and referred on the 8th, and passed on the 10th of February, without the repealing clause of the Senate bill; showing conclusively that the determination to repeal the Missouri 480 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Compromise was reached and agreed to between FebriTary, 1853, and January, 1854. The discussion over this repeal was one of the most absorbing, fervent, and exciting ever held in Congress. The anti-slavery societies, the Churches, hundreds of public men, politicians, and the newspapers took it up, and it became the question talked of, disputed upon, and debated everywhere. The country reached a fever-heat on the subject, and for the first time the free States began a general discussion of the entire slavery contention, regardless of all former con- cessions and compromises. Judge Douglas seemed to be selected everywhere in the free States for the most violent denunciation. He was de- nounced personally, and as the chief political leader who was responsible, in rasping and exciting, declarations and resolutions almost every day, and was burned in effig}' some- where every week. This mauling and scoring of political speakers who were doing no more than the party leaders had done without much public concern for a half-century, became a rage, and took on the zeal of a crusade. Thus it went on in a furious way for the four months during which the measure was under discussion in Congress. It has been written of by every one who has attempted any relation of the dispute or the angered conditions existing, often with- out much consideration of the steps in the slavery encroach- ments leading to it. While this fierce dispute was going on in full progress, Douglas neither failed nor faltered in the assertion and defense of his belief. It was the settled agreement of all parties joining in the compromises of 1850, and so recog- nized in principle afterwards in the admission of California, that the slavery question was to be left to the decision of the people in the Territories. He held his ground and sus- tained himself in the estimation of his party, as he was informed from time to time, not particularly in the South- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 481 ern States — for he was never a favorite in most of them — but in the Northern, the Free, and Border States, where he appeared to be holding his leadership well. He bore himself patiently, it might be said doggedly, under the furious discussion, and whether he was right or wrong in his contention, he emerged from it the strongest leader in his party in the Free States and those of the Border States like Missouri, where men were left somewhat free to express themselves. His followers sustained him as faithfully as his opponents denounced him, many of whom had just been suddenly awakened to the alarming encroach- ments of slavery. While it is true that Douglas was as much in the wrong as his party was, but hardly more so, he was then in the second term of his senatorial contest against Jefferson Davis as the leader of the slave-propaganda, in possession of the knowledge of how to contend with them and fight it out to the end better than any other man before Lincoln's inauguration. Douglas has been abused, slurred over, and written down so much, that his high place and inestimable services to our country have been altogether too much overlooked. He became the leader of the Northern, or Free State, Democracy in 1845-49, and never lost it. He could have been nomi- nated for President at either of three Conventions before 1860 if he had been willing to make the concessions that Cass, Pierce, Marcy, and Buchanan were only too willing to make, and a dozen or two others who were beseeching political friends and adversaries to find opportunity to make any concession that would start them on the road to the Presidency. The facts will be better disclosed as we proceed; but it will be well to remember what he could do and did to re- main his party's leader, and that he made no movement which would displace him as such. The Democracy of that day was all-powerful. It discarded and tossed its eminent 31 482 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. leaders aside like discarded toys, and left them helpless and powerless in or out of the party. It had in this way retired more eminent men than any other two parties in the country had ever done. Of those of its leaders who were in any way ineligible to the Presidency it had stranded Van Buren, Marcy, Cass, and Benton, and was consuming in its pro- slavery progress all there was of Pierce and Buchanan. Douglas determined that it should not destroy him, and that he would not concede his political beliefs nor his integrity to get their nomination for the Presidency. From this time forward the slave-leaders planned his downfall, but could never shake him from his place as a leader. His remarkable rise to power and influence, his untiring and marvelous perseverance, his accession to the leadership of the loyal part of his part}^, which was as much as two- thirds of it, the tenacity and ability with which he held his undisputed control, his fifteen years' desperate contest with and against the ablest and shrewdest, the wisest and strong- est leaders of the slave power, is the story of one of the most capable, daring, and unyielding Americans who ever served our country or led a party. We hope to correct some errors concerning this truly great man and worthy leader, and might well hope to correct all of them. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill was in this fevered excitement discussed for about four months, from January to May, 1854, when it passed Congress and became a law. In the closing argument on it Douglas offered the amendment which was adopted, and without which he would not have supported it: "And it is further declared that the true in- tent and meaning of this act is not to legislate slavery into any State or Territory and not to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people perfectly free to regulate their domestic institutions in their own way." He was approached by one of the prominent Southern senators, with the proposal, that if he would withdraw this amendment, the South would THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 483 agree to his nomination for President in 1856. He very promptly declined doing so, and his faithful and insurmount- able defense of this same amendment and the people's fight for a free State in Kansas under its operation, in the same Senate, and his success, proved his sincerity and integrity. There were forty Democrats in the House of Eepresenta- tives who revolted and voted against the bill. All the Demo- crats in the Senate, including General Cass, of Michigan, voted for it. About all the Whigs in the House voted for it, and all the Whig senators from the South, except Bell, of Tennessee, did likewise. In this angered Congressional contest the fight for freedom against slavery was trans- ferred from the Capital, with its Presidents, Cabinets, courts, and Congresses, to the plains west of the Missouri, where it was going anj^way, without regard to party leaders in 1854, and in the same way to the people of the Nation in 1S61. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was, without doubt, forced upon the Southern leaders by the position taken by Seward, Chase, and Giddings. Through their in- fluence, the new Territories were filling up rapidly with active Northern people, who would have excluded slavery. At this juncture the indiscreet zeal of Archibald Dixon, the pro-slavery Whig senator, who succeeded Clay and truly represented the pro-slavery people of his State, as stated elsewhere, expedited the repeal. The Whigs and Democrats alike believed they had the power, and that the opportunity was before them. They were earnestly devoted to the im- mediate extension of slavery. Kentucky was raising slaves, like the older border States, for the market, just as they were raising mules. It had passed the era of Clay and Crittenden and the more sympa- thetic school of statesmen, and was then ready to join and follow the business-like leaders, who had no hopes of future compromises with the anti-slavery people. To put it in 484 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Dixon's plain language, "We have no use for compromises any longer, and will dispose of those in existence in our own way as fast as we can, and be rid of them." The plan of the leaders was to hurry forward the terri- tory-enslaving dictum of the Supreme Court, eventually known as the "Dred Scott Decision," and follow it up, or not as might appear expedient, with a repeal of the Missouri Compromise. In either result the slaveholders were to rush into the new Territories with their slaves, where they were to be sustained in all the strength and forms of law, which would be amply provided for. The sleepy, old court drawled along as usual. The delaying processes of its old men were too well set in lifetime habits to mend, even in the pressing emergencies. It was expected that their de- cision would plant slavery in all the Territories, and as fast as submitted to in all the States, under authority of the Constitution, as construed by themselves, regardless of compromises, restrictions, or unfriendly legislation. The court was willing enough, and in the end did all that was expected of it, except that the sleepy, slavery-smit- ten council of Constitutional relics could not be moved in time to prevent the eruption caused by slavery extension in another direction. Nevertheless it came very near to obliterating these fossils, with their prerogatives and prece- dents. They aroused the unquenchable, unpurchasable American spirit that was coming to foresee the desperate struggle, and arrange for it. They prepared for a fair fight for freedom whenever the debasing slavery-power threw down the gauntlet, regardless of Administrations, Congresses, or courts. The Senate was strongly Democratic, so that no thought existed outside of it that the slavery break-up would be precipitated in that body, where its well-managed commit- tees had control of all the measures that passed through it. Least of all was it expected that it would come from THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 485 one of its newest pro-slavery auxiliaries. Archibald Dixon, Clay's successor, had not been taken into the confidence of the Davis regime. He was not seeking fame. He had been governor of Kentucky, and his mind was particularly fitted and trained for executive and close business management of all public afi^airs, including, of course, slavery and his State's tobacco and Negro raising relation to it. He was indiscreet, and knew scarcely enough about subjects of National legis- lation to be aware of the existence of the pro-slavery power within the Democratic part}^ and its absolute control of all slavery legislation. He was plain and candid enough, January 16, 1854, to offer, in the form of an amendment to the pending Territorial Act, just what he and his people wanted and expected, in effect, "that the Missouri Compro- mise line be, and is hereby, repealed, and that the citizens of the several States shall be at liberty to take and hold their slaves within any of these Territories." He knew that Congress had the power, in their construction of the Com- promise Measures, and that the powers of the Government were all in pro-slavery hands. He was realistic enough to offer and secure the passage of such a law, with no doubt- ful facings to embarass and hide him, as the Northern statesmen had who were serving in the slavery cause. On his introduction of this amendment, the consternation was as sudden as it was unexpected. Neither it nor Dixon could be quashed or laid aside; for, although a very plain-spoken man, he was enough of a leader to press forward, and make himself a more conspicuous one, whatever might be the marked-out lines of the Davis-Benjamin control. Consultations were immediately held, and Dixon, from all that followed, was heard at once and confided in. There were hurried conferences and earnest caucusing on that day, and the next few days; for the subject had to be taken up and disposed of, somewhat in Dixon's way, or he would have proceeded with it alone in his plain Kentucky plan 486 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of expediting business. Xo more expeditions sort of men have got into Congress than our ex-governors; and Dixon was one of them who was not ver}^ far from becoming a leader in that pro-slavery Democratic Congress in the days of the elegant Pierce. As it was, he could have held his leadership for a time at least, and forced the measure through under his views of form and style, if he had not been satisfied that the Democratic Senate would do so in its regular way through its committees; so when he was convinced of this he conceded the right to the Senate Com- mittee on Territories, of which Douglas was chairman. There were immediate caucuses of the propaganda, when Davis, Stephens, Atchison, Benjamin, and perhaps Breckin- ridge, were all present. Douglas was not called in; but these caucuses were never held with any determining result with- out his knowledge; for in comprehensiveness and grasp of pending and passing affairs he was easily their master, and usually anticipated every movement in all their kaleido- scopic churnings and revolutions, then so common and fre- quent. They were eager enough for the discomfiture of Doug- las through the leadership of Dixon in the progress of the repeal, if they could have arrested it at that point. But they foresaw that Dixon's leadership might carry them, no telling whither, in such perilous, unheard-of times, and they discreetly decided that it would not do to hazard a change from the doubted and suspected Douglas to as new a recruit as the Whig pro-slavery Dixon. Hence the strong, clear-headed, unscrupulous Atchison was selected to nego- tiate with Douglas, in a pleasant, roundabout way, of course, with all of the dissembling diplomacy he could master. It was a difficult proceeding for a man of his direct and almost abrupt manner of speech, particularly so for a consultation with and proposal to Douglas for his abdication from his long-held chairmanship of the Committee on Territories. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 487 The penetrating vision of an experienced statesman like Douglas could, and did, discern the object of Atchison's blundering proposal before he had disclosed it in his artless speech. When Benton was so cruelly overthrown b}^ the pro- slavery Democracy of Missouri, by direction of Calhoun and Jefferson Davis, James Green, a lawyer of good ca- pacit}^, was elected in Benton's place; but Atchison, the most daring, and one of the most experienced, unscrupu- lous border men, succeeded to Benton's leadership, as far as the pro-slavery senators could arrange it. When it is considered that, if Douglas could have been deposed from his leadership, it will be conceded that Atchi- son was the most appropriate selection that could be made to succeed him, and, further, to become the director, border general, and superintendent of the worst of the work to force slavery into Kansas. He had been a senator from 1841. His work, attention to business, and completeness of knowledge were recognized in making him president pro tem. of the most thoroughly pro-slavery Senate ever assem- bled under the Constitution. He was so enthusiastic in his attachment to the institution as to declare, "I am entirely devoted to the interests of the South, and I would sacrifice everything but my hope of heaven to advance her welfare." This shows unusual piety for such a man; and in the light of fast-following events it seems diflficult to understand why he made any exceptions, seeing that his zeal for slavery was so different from anything else we ever heard about his desire for "heaven." This was the nature of his devotion while a senator and Acting Vice-President. Afterwards, in 1856, when out of service in the Senate, his "devotion" kept him steady in his work of waging war for slavery propagation. He retained his place as border leader, the advance protector of "the interests of the South," commander over all Territorial officers, and super- 488 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. intendent of all the ''pro-slavery damnations" that inaugu- rated border warfare on a peaceful people. He was him- self, in one or more forays, the commander of more than two thousand armed border ruffians from Missouri, whom he led into Kansas, and held there, for hostile purposes, until they were driven out by James H. Lane. The latter was as thoroughly devoted to making Kansas a free State as Atchison was against it; and Lane had the advantage of possessing better guns and as much, if not more, courage when the test was made on the field of war, which he had invited. Thus Atchison became the chief of a dastardly border war that was so full of atrocities that it would take the flame of a burning sun to light them up. It was an invasion that drove men from their peaceful homes, and frenzied them by the thousand. It was the cause, in one instance, without doubt, of driving the frantic old man of Ossawat- omie, with less than a dozen followers, into a counter in- vasion of Virginia, that made the slaveholders from Ac- comac to San Antonio shiver like an aspen in the autumnal gales. And it took the whole power of the Government under the worse-quaking Administration of Buchanan to save Virginia or slavery, or both,- while it did not raise a hand to save a thousand perishing settlers in their homes on the plains of Kansas. Hoping this will give the reader the information we desire as to who Atchison was, it will be plain that, when he approached Judge Douglas with his proposal in January, 1854, the judge thoroughly understood his character and meaning. Atchison said that the Missouri Compromise ought to be repealed, and that "If you, Judge Douglas, will resign as chairman of the Committee on Territories, I will take your place. You can have any other place on any other committee, or in the Senate, and I will report a bill for the repeal. I have been selected by a committee of a Democratic THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 489 caucus of the Senate to make this proposal to you." Doug- las knew as well as he did the nature of the demand and the threat that was scarcely hidden behind it. lie knew that the threat would be enforced if he did not introduce the bill or relinquish his position, as Atchison requested, and that any default of his would be enforced by all the power of the party if he did not promptly obey. The request was as pleasant as an arrogant man like Atchison could make it; but it had all the power of a Demo- cratic caucus and the relentless desire of Jefferson Davis for Douglas's overthrow. Whatever may have been Doug- las's frame of mind, he did not for a moment lose his wits, and was in full composure and exercise of his great abilities ; so he pleasantly, as he had been requested, replied, "Mr. Vice-President, I will consider the proposition you have made, and give you my reply to-morrow." The upheaval was so great, the excitement in Congress was so intense in a very short time that many men soon forgot, or did not understand, the critical situation and the danger in which Judge Douglas was placed. Many of his avowed supporters were furious in denouncing him, with- out a thought as to what he could have done if he had pur- sued any other course than he did. They did not give his situation very careful thought; but he did as much as he could within the time he had promised. He got the name of the "little giant," which he surely earned; and he was all that the name indicated in talent, industry, strength of mind, and activity, so clearly established in his lifetime work that it is imperishable, and will remain so. He was the leader of the loyal patriotic Democracy for fifteen years, which the slaveholders and their leaders knew to their detri- ment and better than any other men; for he was, during the whole time, the strongest obstacle in their path. Nei- ther Calhoun nor Davis nor all their associates ever shook him loose one moment from his seat. He knew as well as 490 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. they did, and as all do now, that if they could have over- thrown him, or could have persuaded him to desert or be- tray his people, there was no other man who could take his place. If Douglas could have been overthrown, or had suc- cumbed to siren tongues, where, indeed, was the man who could have led the hosts of the loyal Demacracy? Men have written and spoken of him and of the time with careless, some with utter, disregard of what he did and whom he led. Were this all the information to be had, it would lead to the certain conclusion that he and all his following were defeated by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and permanently so, as the result of his debates with Lincoln in 1858. The truth is that after all the political contests had been waged against him by his antagonists and by for- mer friends, he still held the strongest body under his per- sonal leadership who ever followed any man in a well-defined contest — a host of nearly one million four hundred thou- sand patriotic Democrats, who had never bended their knees to the Baal of slavery disunion. Douglas was not guided, as an anti-slavery man, by sym- pathy, but grew up under the prevailing statesmanship of our country in all its earlier parties, that recognized some kind of right to hold slaves under the Constitution. He did not believe that any kind of human government gave men unqualified freedom, and that all systems, even our own Democracy, were not free from the means of grinding op- pressions of white men; and he was free to say and believe that no race of men, save those of Europe or our own coun- tr}^, were qualified for self-government. He believed that anti-slavery agitators were impractical, many of them fanatical, and that they were doing more harm than good. These views he believed to be true, and talked so of them in an easy manner, as he did any subject; and he held as good a friend as Nimmo Browne to be fanatical and, at THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 491 best, a long way ahead of his time in the advocacy of his anti-slavery opinions. But, fully impressed as he was with these opinions, he seldom discussed them, and, to our knowledge, never in public. He was one of the strongest anti-slavery advocates we ever knew. However, he was a statesman and a leader of a party which held no anti-slavery sympathies; but they were all patriotic, and followed Douglas because of his masterful ablities and corresponding patriotic ideas. He had an enlightened intellect that grasped and held what was known of man and government from the beginnings of history. In his light and knowledge, and representing the people he did, in full consideration of all our environments, he held slavery of any kind, direct or indirect, or enforced labor at half-paid wages, to be an unmitigated, withering curse, to be got rid of as soon as possible under forms of law; but under our democratic system he held it to be the absolute right of the people themselves to accomplish any reform. To this end, in his own way, and in a service that no other man could have rendered, he labored and devoted himself with a tenacity and determination that consumed his vital powers and his strongly-built, rugged frame at the early age of forty-eight years; but he lived long enough to see the rising people uniting and able to defend the Na- tion's freedom. Douglas was an outspoken opponent of slavery before his entry into Congress, and was in full accord with the Democracy of Illinois in their clear and distinct resolu- tions against the extension of slavery into any free Terri- tory. In his second term he made his celebrated defense of General Jackson and his conduct at New Orleans in one of the most exhaustive and masterly arguments ever de- livered in Congress. He amply sustained Jackson's high military capacities and his prerogative to exercise com- 492 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. plete authority at New Orleans, thus saving the city and the entire Louisiana Territory, and no telling how much be- sides, from the seizure and occupation of Britain. The "Expunging Resolutions" were passed in the enthu- siasm of Douglas's fine argument and oration, which was not only a high tribute and Just recognition of the great hero Democrat, but left Douglas, although a very young man, one of the undisputed leaders of his party. By reason of this grateful service and defense of General Jackson, he gained the powerful enmity of Calhoun and his trusted followers, who never neglected an opportunity for the hu- miliation or political overthrow of any friend or defender of the patriotic Jackson, who so expeditiously and efEectu- ally, for the time, suppressed Calhoun and his Carolina nullification schemes in 1830-33. From that time forward Douglas, along with Benton, was marked, a victim for entanglement and destruction, under the slavers' ceaseless vigilance. His early anti-slavery record was against him also. This, Avith the defense of Jack- son, made it certain, even after Calhoun's complete restora- tion, when Douglas had retired from public life, that neither Douglas nor any other such Democrats would ever gain favor or the slightest concession outside of unavoidable ne- cessity from the slave-propaganda of Calhoun or his suc- cessor, Jefferson Davis. Whatever place or position he attained or held in the party was earned and maintained only by stubborn and continued contest with these men. With full knowledge of the complications surrounding him, and that he was in the net that would drag him down if he failed to cut his way through their entanglements, he was fully alive to the slightest interference against his leadership. In this course of the coming political upheaval he was confronted with Atchison and his well-understood request for abdication of his leadership; for it could mean nothing less. He was better prepared to understand what THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 493 wonld be the results of his action in either course than any one about him. In the situation, too, he was where no one could advise him; for he was better qualified to act than any one whom he could approach or advise with. He was fully aware of the delicate and precarious position he held, and that advice from one not qualified to be a judge might embarrass him to no good purpose; hence he took the responsibility to decide for himself. He knew something of, but did not likely anticipate all, the indignation and resistance it would arouse, and the bit- ter and unrelenting denunciations it would bring down upon him to agree to the open repeal of the Missouri Compro- mise; but he knew well that, in political movements, as in war, if he firmly held his place, and assumed responsibility for this aggression demanded by the slavery-leaders, what- ever might be the results in time, it was sure to provoke a storm and political disruption. Nevertheless he was sure that he should hold his leadership and abide the shock, and that if this invited the assault upon himself, he must defend and counter assault without repining or complaint. He knew what thousands of unthinking people, many of whom were tolerably well informed, did not consider, that if Atchison succeeded him as chairman of his commit- tee, in the existing conditions of things he would not only have charge of all Territorial legislation, which of itself would be a noted achievement for the slave-leaders, but, vastly more important than that, such a leadership would be almost a victory in the beginning to the bold and daring Atchison, who would be prepared by such means to control legislation and all the powers of Congress with him. He would be- come a sort of general in the field, to force slavery into the Territories, without care, regard, or pretense of honor- able methods, and hold, by means of this committee, the power of suppressing, and even the power of manufacturing and destroying testimony. He would be enabled by this 494 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. entirely to cover up the nefarious schemes even then in operation; and if Douglas were removed from his con- trolling position, the leaders would be sure to make Kansas a slave State, with no alternative but revolt and war. In his party consideration of the subject, Douglas con- cluded that it would be the most practicable method to sub- mit the slavery question to the people in the Territories for settlement, as had been so successfully done in Cali- fornia. He was fully aware of the overwhelming pro- slavery sentiment in Congress, and that free institutions would gain no advantage by any kind of settlement or re- settlement there, and he had no reason to believe there would soon be any important change. He knew how the Executive and the courts stood on the question. He knew, also, that if there was any failure of Congressional action, the plans were then in operation, under the direction of this same Atchison, to carry the fight for slavery into Kansas. From all the information he had at hand — and there was no lack of it — he fully believed that, with the careful preparations the slave-power had made, the fight for freedom would begin with bare hands on the part of the free settlers on the plains, and, no difference how it began, he had the confidence so many lacked, that they would win if they could have a fair fight. To that end, and to avert civil war, if possible, he determined to make the sacrifice, bear the opprobrium, whatever it might be, and devote all his energies to it. He believed, however, that the coming conflict, as he termed it, was inevitable; but its magnitude or result was then a mystery to him as well as to all who understood the situation as well as he did. He often remarked through those years that, judging our condition by what had hap- pened to other peoples similarly situated, war could scarcely be avoided; and there was so much proof and forecast of it to him in 1854 that it appeared a certainty. CHAPTER XXII. AT the expiration of the time mentioned — one day — Douglas informed Atchison that he would introduce ■ an amendment in the Senate to the pending Kansas- Nehraska Bill, and that Mr. Richardson, of Illinois, would also introduce a similar one in the House, to repeal the Missouri Compromise in the form heretofore given, Doug- las also conferred with Senator Dixon, who readily con- sented to the Douglas form of the repeal, giving plausible reasons for the repeal in what was done in the compromises of 1850. It must he distinctly stated that the pending proposed amendment of Dixon, which all knew would pass the Senate, was a simple, unqualified repeal of the act or clause of it known as the Missouri Compromise of 1830, which gave the people of the Territory no authority to vote for or against slavery. Instead of this the Douglas repeal asserted the right of the people of the Territories to settle and determine whether slavery should exist in them. If Atchison had succeeded Douglas, his plan would have been the same as Dixon's. It will be seen on investigation that there was a world of difference. The pro-slavery plan fastened slavery in the Territories to begin with, while under Douglas's plan it could never be established without a fair election and a majority of the qualified voters in its favor. In this dif- ference lay the contest, which was transferred from Con- gress to the people, and fought out to its bloody ending. As we have related, Douglas encountered no end of denunciation and personal abuse from the people of the 495 496 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. free States, while he was the most dreaded leader in the estimation of the pro-slavery faction of his party. Jefferson Davis, in his ''Kise and Fall," says that "On a Sunday — January 22, 1854 — the House and Senate Territorial Com- mittees called on President Pierce, to get his approval of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. They called on that day because of the urgency demanded, and the Presi- dent gave it his immediate approval." All of this was true, but it was a mere formality compared with the stress of existing things as we have related, it was the only and last resort of the slave-leaders to extend their slavery in- stitution into the new territories short of war, and with- out which they believed their slavery-system would perish. The act must be rushed through Congress before there was time to organize opposition against it. Therefore, as Davis says, "It was attended to on a Sunday." That this was the real course is sustained in the occur- rence of the political and public events of the time. The knowledge of the relation of Judge Douglas to these events and his action came mostly through the pleasant friendly relations referred to, and were not biased in his favor in any way by political affiliations, for there were none. Mmmo Browne and the writer were unqualified Abolitionists from the beginning, which Judge Douglas very well knew, though our friendly relations enabled us to estimate the sterling quailties of the man and the reasons for his political course, which we have related. The writer was in college in Chicago in the fall of 1854, when Judge Douglas was prevented by a riotous mob from speaking. The lights were turned off, seats were demol- ished, men were howling all over the hall, and general dis- order prevailed. One hundred of us students, mainly from the smaller towns, armed with nothing but canes and sticks, offered our services to assist the police in subduing the dis- turbance, which we believed could be easily done, and order THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 497 preserved, while Judge Douglas explained his action in the Senate and his beliefs, which we were very anxious to hear. To our surprise the police declined our help, informing us that our interference would increase the trouble; and in this way they let the uproar continue until the meeting was abandoned and free speech was for this time suppressed in Illinois. We left the hall fully believing that the police were the chief disturbers. In our talks with Mr. Douglas about it, he said that he knew very well that he was to be made the victim of the excitement then prevailing. The feeling was somewhat changed in a few weeks, when we heard a Chicago audience listen in the same hall to the defense of the Kansas-ISTebraska Act by General Cass, who voted for it in the Senate with Douglas, who was then with him on the platform. There were calls for Douglas, and our students' brigade, with others, were present, offering to help the police in a more effectual way than before, but they would not suppress the rioters nor attempt to do so. They were no more than noisy and threatening on that occasion, and Douglas might have been listened to, but he prudently determined not to have a struggle to speak in his own State, and retired. However, he addressed large meetings all over the State, and spoke to orderly crowds of all political parties during that and the next year. Late in 1855, perhaps, Chicago was shamed into some kind of suppression of its riot-breeding police, and Douglas had meetings in and about the city without disturbance of any kind. He went through the period of his denunciation with the true courage and forti- tude of a man who believed he was right. He was written down and denounced so generally and unmercifully that, if his detractors had been correct, he would not have had a friend left in the State; yet when he held his memorable debate, and made the celebrated campaign against as good and righteous a man as Lincoln, with all the influence and 32 498 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. patronage of Buchanan's Administration against him, it was found that the State was very evenly divided between these two great leaders. This, it would seem, should have calmed the violent personal and newspaper abuse, which it did to some ex- tent; but there were many after that who claimed he had made undue concessions to slaver}', and was bending his course to secure the political favor of the South. The worst and most angry denunciations were made by leaders and editor's who had very recently and very ear- nestly supported either Clay, Webster, Fillmore, and Scott, or Pierce and Cass, and others, who had regularly conceded all the South had ever asked of them. No one questioned their right to do this, but, having done it so recently and earnestly, it was one of the strange political conditions in the upheaval that those who had most of their lives been heartily supporting the most zealous conceders to the South were now engaged in pouring out their wrath on Douglas. And yet Douglas was the first eminent leader in the par- ties of his time who would not make concessions to the slavery-leaders — the one man of all the great leaders in the old parties who held his independence, and would not submit to the dictation of Calhoun and Davis, not even to be President, as he easily could have become in 1852. In 1849 our family settled on a farm in McLean County, 111., some sixteen miles from Blooraington. We were led to this settlement because our grandfather, John Steven, a Scotch deacon from near Glasgow, as faithful, deliberate, and solemn as John Knox himself, lived there. He was a devout man, and well reputed among his neighbors. He could repeat the catechisms, a great many of the Psalms, and much of the Scripture, and knew the Thirty-nine Articles, line for line, from beginning to end. He was so kind and gentle and considerate, even with his animals, that, of some thirty horses, all except one or two would THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 499 crowd around him whenever he went among them in his pastures or feed-lots; and the rabbits and birds made a habit of feeding with his animals, and were never dis- turbed. He said of Lincoln: "Indeed that gaunt-lookin' mon, wi' his touzled hair an' een, that would rack ye if ye were nae aye free o' the bailiff, is a real guid body after a'. He 's been hame wi' me, an' likes buttermilk an' oatcakes like a king, I '11 nae be advisin' ye, but I '11 vouch ye that he wud be an honest mon in a judge's gown, an' 't would mak' a draper an' his tailor blythe; for 'twould be as long as any twa of them in a' Dumbarton." The writer, then an ambitious lad of fifteen years, soon learned that, between crops and cattle-raising and the odds and shorts of hard work of miscellaneous kinds, he would have to get all his education that was not worked out at home in the county town of Bloomington. Several visits were made there. It was found that the Munsells — three of them, all Methodist preachers — and Dr. Goodfellow, as good as his name indicated, were going to start a college, and as soon as the country filled up a little more and they got enough students, they would make it a university. Grandfather Steven believed that it was Just the thing "for a lad that needed something in his noggin', as weel as claes on his back." He knew Judge David Davis "as weel as he knew on'y one in a' the country round." He "thocht the college was as guid as they could mak' it. The teach- ers were a' puir-minded. Judge David Davis tould me he would do a' in his power, an' see a bit about it now an' then, an' to send the lad along." In this way the writer entered the colleges, universities, and society of Blooming- ton, and started on his way to something of an education. This was in the days when Mr. Lincoln was attending the court terms of McLean County as regularly as any one of the Bloomington bar, and was often there during the intervals. In addition to the good will and oversight of 600 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Judge Davis that the writer began with, he soon made the favorable acquaintance of Mr. Asahel Gridley, and became office boy, student, and general attache of the Gridley- Davis office and bank for several years. This was of in- calculable benefit to any student, affording, at the same time, the great opportunity of a near acquaintance and close friendship with Mr. Lincoln through the years of his won- derful rise and development. Mr. Gridley's introduction of the somewhat backward boy — the writer — to Mr. Lincoln was characteristic; and in those days it was a noted circumstance in any boy's life to be made a near acquaintance and be as favorably intro- duced to prominent lawyers, who were persons of much distinction to country boys. Our family had known Mr. Lincoln only a few years before, tolerably well, as we have related, but nothing like so intimately as we did Judge Douglas. Hence, to meet Mr. Lincoln in such favorable circumstances as Mr. Gridley had arranged for was a no- table, almost exciting, event. When the time arrived, Mr. Lincoln walked into the office — a tall, mild-mannered, friendly-looking man, with the most comfortable and easy manner about him in his address and presence you could well imagine. Mr. Gridley met him, shook hands with him cordially, and, after some personal remarks, said, in his rapid, clear voice, his words rattling like hailstones on a tin roof: "Mr. Lincoln, I am very glad to have you here with us again. I have made some changes. This will be your desk, and the tables you can arrange as you like. This young man, Eobert, will render you any assistance he can. He is here attending school. His people live in the country. He has been thinking about things for himself, and stirring them up very lively in some quarters, and, as I have advised him, he has been more cautious recently; but in spite of it he insists that he is an out-and-out Abolitionist, without evasion or any THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 501 sort of qualification. I have told him that he was very foolish, and that, if he was a little older, it would bring him a lot of trouble. Anyway, with all my care and pru- dence, he is a long way ahead of public sentiment." Mr. Lincoln took my hand with a warmth and expres- sion that lightened up the soul of any one whom he re- spected or held to be a friend, saying: "Yes, Mr. Gridley, I will get along first rate. This will all suit me very well;" and, turning to me: "The young man will do as well as the rest of lis; but he must not be kept out of school an hour on my account. It seems to me, Eobert, that I ought to know you; but, then, you never know about boys of your age, who change every year, and grow out of your knowl- edge." I replied: "Mr. Lincoln, I know who you are very well. My father knew you when we lived in Springfield, when he helped to finish the south front and the top work of the Capitol building." "Yes, yes, I knew Mr. Browne, the Scotchman. I remember him quite well. Of course, you are an Abolitionist." When this was done, the friendly relation of a lifetime had begun. Mr. Lincoln continued: "I was sorry to learn of your father's death. He was a strong, independent man, full of positive ideas, with the capacity and education to de- fend them. He was the best-informed man on the British emancipation of slavery whom I ever met. I was always pleased and benefited by the chats I had with him. I heard that he contended vigorously with Judge Douglas, who was his warm friend, and I never had a doubt that Browne kept up his side of the question; for he was a fear- less man in the expression of his anti-slavery beliefs, so much so that many feared he might get into some personal difficulty. So, Robert, we will be good friends; but you are not to remain out of school on my account. Are you opposed to slavery from anything you know about it your- self, or is it because of your father's opinions?" Here, 502 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Mr. Gridley rose to retire, saying, "I must go." As he was retiring, he said: "1 see, Mr. Lincoln, that you are taking more and more interest in this slavery question. Beware, and not go too far. The Whigs from the border slave States are going over to Douglas by the thousand. If you should take up the Free Soil cause, which is right in the abstract, there will not be Whigs enough left in McLean County to make a committee." Mr. Lincoln replied: "Mr. Gridley, what do you think of the situation, aside from expediency, which seems to be the main consideration in treating the slave question these days?" Mr. Gridley answered: "When our people teach and defend free-labor systems and their benefits as zealously and faithfully as the South has its slave-system for two or three generations, the free State people will all be Abolitionists; or the South may provoke a rupture, as they would have done in 1820, and divide the N^ation, as they threaten all the time when they fear the passing of their control. They would have done so then had it not been for Mr. Clay's wonderful persuasive powers and the co-operation of Jackson and Benton, who held the Democrats so well in line. There would be a conflict run- ning high within a few months if it were not for the strong, conservative feeling and conduct of our merchants, manu- facturers, and their agencies, who do not want to lose the trade, or offend a single slaveholder. Much as has been said of the shiftiness, flopping over, and turning out and in of the politicians, which many of them make a common habit, slavery has had the best support and the protection that has saved it for over two generations from the mer- chants and commercial people, whose principles are guided by their interests. "The times are critical, Mr. Lincoln," continued Grid- ley. "You know more about these things than I do. You THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 503 are in politics, and I am out. However, I see what I see. Seward and Weed are long-headed, calculating men, I knew them well when I was younger. You may be sure that both of them — Seward particularly — have taken the deepest soundings they could before venturing to be as strong anti-slavery as I understand Seward has lately done, taking public position against the enforcement of the Fugitive-slave Law or the admission of another slave State. This is bold work indeed for as timid a man as I always believed him to be. He can easily have a following in New York, however, as strong as Van Buren's was in 1848, or more — enough, anyway, to turn the State to any party he desires if his Free Soilers can not carry it. He and Weed have declared openly that they will not sup- port Fillmore, nor any one else seeking Southern support in slavery compromises." This was about 1851, before the Presidential election of 1852. As Mr. Gridley left us, Mr. Lincoln said: "Mr. Gridley is a marvelous man. His perceptions are so bright that he has everything at hand, and a memory that never fails him. If he should change his intentions, he would, as his conversation we have now heard indicates, be able to take up public affairs with as much care and ability as he now exercises in business affairs, which is far ahead of any man I know in this part of the country, and, I be- lieve, a great deal more than most of our people realize." One evening, as I sat and talked with him in the office, in order to answer his question as to what was the ground- work of my belief on slavery, I told him what I knew and had seen of it in the mild slaveholding city of St. Louis, and what my father knew about it for several years. My father was an assistant engineer, engaged in and about the city, its public buildings, court-houses, wharves, and the drainage system. He was employed, not elected to any office, and was, therefore, soon on good terms with the 504 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. city and county officials. In this way he had access to the slave-pens, the public and private auctions, wherever slaves were dealt in and sold, and I was with him and saw the horrors of all these slave-dens. The officers liked my father personally. His manner was so easy and plain that they permitted him to say what- ever he liked, and would, as he believed, have protected him. There were, too^ in the city many anti-slavery peo- ple, who seemed more at liberty in denouncing and oppos- ing slavery than the people are here. These would have sustained him, as he knew them well. I remember hear- ing Mr. Benton say, in a speech on the front steps of the court-house, that unskilled slave-labor would soon exhaust the best lands in continuous crops of tobacco, hemp, and corn, and that, while he believed the slave-system should be gradually changed to free labor, he further believed that Missouri would never have the prosperity under slave- labor which its abundant resources and fertile lands in- vited, and that a State with its means of living and navi- gation could not be surpassed when it was opened to free labor, and its slave-system abolished, as it should be. We saw slave sales almost every week. They were so common that our senses became blunted; and it was only when some unusual distress was occasioned by separation of family or friends that there was much said of them. All those made by the sheriff were made on the east front portico, or steps, of the court-house. Negroes belonging to estates were usually sold there. This was the most respectable auction-block in the city, if any man-market could be so; at least it was so held to be. But even there the men, women, and children were examined, stripped, and undressed as requested, and compared in a more aban- doned and coarser way, and jibed over by more vulgar tongues than animals in the stock-pens. Several times we saw heartrending separations. One THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 505 was a Negro woman to a Louisiana planter, who would not buy her nursing child, less than two years old. Families were divided, sold, and separated so often that the cries and lamentations of some such wretched scene were con- stantly in our minds. Browne's work took him about the court-house almost every da}^ in some work or business, or we would not have seen so much of the distress of slave- selling and separating. He denounced the whole system openly many times; but, seeing it was useless, and per- haps angering those who were in the dastard work to more cruel conduct, he gave it up. I was with him much of the time for months and years in his errands, work about the court-house and other parts of the city, and saw all there was of the vileness of slave-selling, separations, and the slave-dens and auction-blocks when a boy from ten to fifteen years of age. The oflicers protected Browne several times, as I remember, when he angered the buyers and traders who were so roughly and brutally handling the poor, scared, and terrified women and children that were on the way to a fate they dreaded worse than death. I talked an hour, with frequent questions interspersed by Mr. Lincoln, who was deeply interested in every fact and feature of this slavery business in the city of St. Louis, as we saw and understood it for so many years. When I had finished, he was in deep and profound study, and I thought perhaps he had fallen asleep. I said, in the usual way, not louder than ordinary conversation, ''Mr. Lincoln, do you wonder that my father and myself were Abolition- ists, or do you doubt our sincerity?" This disclosed that he had not been asleep, but in deep thought. He sat firm, with not so much as a muscle of his face relaxed, as he had done through much of my recital. His face and its firm, drawn expression was like one in pain. He made a motion of some kind with his arm or head, and broke the strain, which, I remember, relieved me very much. 506 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He drew out a sighing "No. I saw it all myself when I was only a little older than you are now, and the horrid pictures are in my mind yet. I feel drawn toward you because you have seen and know the truth of such sor- row. No wonder that your father told Judge Douglas he had nothing but contempt for party platforms or techni- calities that held and bound a free man in a free State, directly or remotely, to sustain a system of such unquali- fied cruelties and horrors. When Mr. Gridley mentioned it to me, I supposed your Abolitionism was only a boy's sentiment perhaps; but the knowledge you have demon- strates and makes it very plain to me that your father, educated as he was, and seeing what he did of slavery so well, could not have been anything but an Abolitionist; and your experience, though young, is as full justification." Our acquaintance grew to regard and friendship that could not be measured or expressed. The busy, hard-work- ing man was never too much engaged during the day that he did not enjoy reading with me and helping along with all my studies in the evenings, when we were so often alone in the old law office. Along with many a hard les- son or reading, or examples in arithmetic and algebra, while Mr. Lincoln laid no claim to being a lettered man or a teacher, yet, in going over these with him, his ex- planation of any of their intricacies was the clearest and the plainest I ever got. This was in a school where we had the best of teachers, and, having time, they made full explanations to us as pupils whenever desired. In a conversation, one evening, Mr. Lincoln asked me, "Did your father express the belief that Douglas could be as free to express and carry into effect his anti-slavery beliefs while a senator, as Browne could as a citizen?" I ansAvered: "I remember Douglas saying, 'The officers of the Government, from President to senators, representa- tives, and judges, are so hemmed in by agreements, Con- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 507 stitutional restrictions and precedents, that, regardless of what their individual opinions may be, what they say and do must be within the limits of these laws and settle- ments.' To this Browne replied: 'If you will do all that you can within these limits, it will be all that is neces- sary now; and soon you will put slavery in the course of extinction. I am aware that public officers are limited by law and the recognized course of procedure, and that reform measures under consideration must harmonize with the same. They should submit to law, regardless of what their personal opinions may be.' "'What can we do?' Douglas asked. Browne answered: *Enact some plain, simple statutes in harmony with your fundamental declaration, which is now so openly violated, "That all men are created free and equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." For instance, enact one to prohibit slavery in the District of Columbia, or in any Territory or juris- diction not in a slave State; another, that no officer or other person serving in the army or navy of the United States shall own, deal in, or sell slaves; and the last I have to suggest now would be an act to prohibit all com- merce in the buying or selling of men and women between the States, over which Congress has jurisdiction, as it has over all other commerce.' "Douglas seemed amazed, replying: 'Why, my friend, if I should do even a part of what you mention, as I look at existing conditions in our country, I would be regarded fanatical at once. Whatever influence I might expect to exercise now would be lost, and I would be as helpless to bring about any reform or amelioration of slavery as you are here to-day.' "Browne rejoined: 'What you say may be true, or you may be altogether mistaken. I know that the conditions 508 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. are different from the abolition movement in Britain, but they are nevertheless enough alike to establish prece- dents and draw conclusions from. The same browbeat- ing, coarse-mannered objections to emancipation there were used for over thirty years. There was more peaceful and logical, and less violent, discussion of the system; but the movers of it in the beginning were called addle-pated, visionary reformers, who had neither legal nor practical knowledge of the labor-systems they were attempting to revolutionize. But they had the virtue of perseverance, and continued their noble, praiseworthy labors until they succeeded. This unliinching kind of a campaign is just what 3^ou need in this country, and must eventually under- take — an unselfish, patient, reproof-bearing devotion to the work, until the great turn in humanity is accomplished. TThen done here, it will be, as it is now in Britain and all her Colonies: it will be acknowledged to be an achieve- ment of good so manifest and, withal, so profitable, that no one in all the colonies ever expects to see or hear of slavery again in any of them. Much as you object to what your questions have invited, should you live out your days, you will perhaps see the time when you will be demanding all these laws against slavery, and, perhaps, the more di- rect law for its extinction. You do not seem to realize that your slaveholders have taken up arms for its exten- sion, nor that men who will contend with arms for so un- righteous a system as slavery will not haggle long about who are their contestants, but will strike down all alike in their pathway. Such has been the history of every usurpation. Your antagonists will destroy your system of free labor if you do not destroy their slave-system.' In this discussion Douglas and Browne contended until it was very late, leaving it about as they began." Mr. Lincoln was thoughtful, and observed every word of what I said. The acquaintance thus begun with him was TEE MEX OF HIS TIME. 509 developed, strengthened, and continued. It became a per- petual pleasure. It was an open, cheerful, good-willed friendship, that was never cramped nor strained. I was intimate with him in this office intercourse something over three years, and had a continued friendly relation that was never broken or impaired up to 1860. His habits were so simple, so plain, and his personal wants so few, that he never had a wish to be served, as I was very anxious to do. He was not given to much writ- ing. His letters were short, distinct, emphatic, and very much to the purpose. His entire record of many of his most important suits in court were kept upon the memoran- dums which he made on narrow slips of paper, marked "Memorandum Slips,"' giving the suit and date at the top. These memoranda he kept along with letters further ex- plaining the cases, in the large side-pockets of his loose- hanging coat and in the top of his capacious silk hat, which, though usually a well-worn one, was respectable, with the fur ruffled up, and half of it turned the wrong way. His hats were all good ones to begin with. They were gener- ally made for him, and when one was '"iDroken in," he wore it as long as he could, for one reason, that he would rather wear an old hat than undergo the discomfort of ''"'breaking in" a new one. He was quite careless about his dress — that is, about replenishing it — and seemed never to realize the time when he needed a new suit of clothes, and, as far as we could see, he gave the matter very little attention. He wore good clothes, and was never slouchy in appearance or dress; but, seeing how careless he was about his attire and replen- ishing it, we came to the conclusion that this matter was well attended to by his more prudent wife and his Spring- field tailor, who served him faithfully for years, and made him a new suit of clothes whenever he saw that Mr. Lin- coln needed them. 510 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He was careful so far about his dress that his garments were always plain, of dark color, roomy, and made to be easy and comfortable. It was often joked over about the courts that "Lincoln carried his library in his hat." To many who did not know him well this had little, if any, meaning; but to those who did know him there was much truth in the pleasantry. He carried a lot of memoranda about his law cases and political addresses, platforms, and resolutions on written slips and printed ones in his capa- cious hat and in his large coat-pockets. He found this way of keeping his references and smaller briefs very con- venient, and the best place to have them, where they were always at hand. His business took him into several counties. He was often counsel on one side or the other of about every case on the court docket, usually as associate counsel. The lawyer who was defending or who brought the action, with whom he was associated, kept the complete and fully writ- ten-out records of every case, which, of course, supplied any lack in Lincoln's memoranda. It was a marvelous per- formance, quite often noticed in the courts he attended, to see him rise, take his narrow strip — the memorandum — hang it over his left forefinger, and proceed in his case, with no other reference, lay every detail of the most com- plicated cause before a court or jury so honestly, fairly, and completely that the whole transaction, from beginning to end, was particularly related, without redundance or omission. This was sometimes done so satisfactorily that it was accepted by both sides as a fair and impartial pre- sentation of the facts. Ever after our pleasant acquaintance and association, confirmed by the agreeable conversations as they ran through the time, I never for a moment doubted that, in the pend- ing revolution then approaching on the slavery issue, Mr. Lincoln would be the anti-slavery leader in our State. We II THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 511 had anxious hopes that he would rise to more than a State leader, because on the slavery division he had no equal in any Western State, as we knew. It was a time when there was a hundred-fold more party disintegration than growth or organization, when there were none wise enough to know what would be the future of political or public affairs. Even in that early day we had faith in Lincoln. During those days our Abolition section was the most aggressive, and as well the most progressive. We had liter- ature in abundance, and every reading and thoughtful per- son in all our region was supplied. Our newspapers were: Garrison's Liberator, Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, and the National Era, of Washington City, as our prin- cipal ones. These we read regularly, and as we learned and grew steadily in our faith by reason of the diabolical progress of slavery, we saw that Mr. Lincoln was always delighted with the rest of us in the clearest and strongest arraignments of the system. Judge Davis regularly denounced the Abolitionists whenever the subject was talked of, and was displeased v/hen it was considered in or about the ofhce. Mr. Grid- ley would smile, and always take a part. He would cut off some of the sharpest sentences imaginable, and very often, when the cutting seemed to rile Davis until he would retire from the discussion. His sharp sentences seemed to cut through the subject from top to bottom like a flashing blade. We give some specimens of his talk: "Mr. Lincoln grows constantly, and will be the leader, without question, of all the opposing anti-slavery forces in the State as soon as these old Whig fossils are decently retired or laid away. Lincoln attracts men to him every day, and never seems to be afraid that his party will get too big. Judge Davis is still apologizing for Illinois being a free State, and talks as though he would help catch a run- away nigger any day." 612 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. "As for Robert here, the young man seems to be study- ing well and reading enough, and never misses an issue of Garrison's Liberator or Greeley's Tribune. Though only a boy, he will be in the camp of the agitators right away. He will soon be a teacher among them — is now, for all I know — and will be a leader as soon as he votes. I, the ex- citable Gridley, am the most conservative person about the establishment, and the only one of all of us cool-headed enough to keep out of politics. The others think they are, while they are all excited, not even excusing Mr. Lincoln; and not a line nor a fact concerning slavery and party break-ups escapes their attention, but keeps them in a state of political agitation all the time. If I did not want to do it, I see that I must remain cool enough to keep them all out of trouble; for they are all more excitable than I am, much as I am inclined to enthusiasm, as some- times reported, and sometimes when it is the truth. I verily believe that if a runaway nigger should come along, none of them would have the prudence, the coolness, and precaution to hide him away as well as I would myself." The darkest days for freedom in our country, as they seemed to be, were in the years following the Mexican War, in 1846-47, to about 1853. The leading men and the poli- ticians, including the best-informed among them, fully be- lieved this, and a general state of dread prevailed through- out the land. Although this was the general belief, and the feeling of uneasiness was general, the people were slow in taking up the cause of freedom, not because they were cowed down in fear of slavery, but because of the uncer- tainty which hung over the Xation like a cloud of dark- ness. The hope of the future and the promise of the great struggle for freedom began in the general desire to read the most reliable anti-slavery newspapers, and be informed on the subject regardless of the resolutions of dying and rot- ting-out political parties. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 513 The Xorthern people took a firm resolve against the fier}' slave-leaders' threatened disunion, and against the doubters and party servers of the Northern States. The newspapers that were the strongest, boldest, and most em- phatic against the aggressions of slavery sold the best, until one or more of them circulated in every household or neighborhood of the free and border States. There were many other signs in those days that the people would eventually come to the front and stubbornly resent the encroachments of the slave-power; but the widespread work of the propaganda had clouded the minds of so many people with subserviency to the system that their emergence from its thralldom was slow. But by 1853 thousands were in- vestigating and revolutionizing their minds on the sub- ject every day. It was a movement among the loyal people of the Nation of such magnitude that no leader of the time realized its swelling tide until he went out among them and saw it and became part of it. Seward, like Chase, Thaddeus Stevens, Giddings, and a few other determined men, had fought manfully against the compromises of 1850, so that when the Missouri Com- promise was repealed in 1854, he voiced the heroic ac- ceptance of the conflict on the part of the North. He called the hosts of freedom to their duty on that memorable 30th of May, when he cried: "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave States! Since there is no escaping your chal- lenge, I accept it in behalf of freedom. We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God give the victory to the side that is the strongest in numbers as it is in right!" Seward Avent immediately into the contest with all the ability and skill of a trained leader, and in convincing reasons led the people in multitudes to the active defense of their challenged liberties. The storm gathered and burst. aMen were to grow to leadershi]). and gain the contidenee 33 614 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of the people, as some did; for no others could lead in that or any other such contest for the rights of men. It became a marvel that two of the great leaders in this mighty struggle were men who had grown to power and strength in Illinois. They were to rise and contend with each other as they had done for almost twenty years; but to what end the}^ knew not. When it began they only knew that one was contending to lead his part of a great party, that, in name and belief, had been the friend of men wherever there was human oppression. Douglas was its only Northern leader who had not fallen; but he then seemed faltering and half caught in the nets of the slave- syren in the mystification of "non-interference." He and Lincoln were to fight a mighty battle, which we must follow. Lincoln was to shape the rising tide of the people as God led him, into a new party. It was composed of all those who had been serving, but were then adverse to the spread of slavery. There were Whigs in all stages of discontent and change, even to the thousands, who only wanted to know that it was opposed to the Democrats, and they would support it. There were the Democrats in thousands who would not follow their party as far as it had gone, and furiously arraigned those whom they had just left. Be- sides these, there were the Abolitionists, who had been so long denounced as fanatics and insurrectionists that they were listless about the charges made against them. Their one aim was the repression of the slave-power by confining it to the States where it then existed, and its eventual overthrow. God, in his, wisdom and in the fullness of time, was preparing Lincoln, in mind, heart, and strength, to be this party's and the Nation's leader by teaching him how to govern himself. CHAPTER XXIIL ^I^HE year 1854 was a time of political mix-ups, dissolv- I ing, realigning, proselj'ting, and reorganizing of par- ties. The work, aside from any sentiment or principle involved, that came to such leaders as Lincoln and Doug- las, was a strain of mind and expenditure of strength which very few men could have endured. They were strong, ca- pable men, whose energies were all used in the progress of the work. There were many old Whigs, with hardly a dozen of them having the same mind. Many of them were older than Lincoln, and sought to overawe him by reason of age, official position, or their personal experience. Judge Davis was a type of Whig conservatism, and ITriah Linder was the type of another faction who had to be conciliated. They were thoroughly set against any man who was a Democrat and any party that had a shadow of the name Democrat about it. They had fought Demo- crats all their lives, and no change was to be expected from men in advanced age, whose experience had left them more opinionated than ever. These were, if anything, more pro-slavery than the old men of the State who had been Democrats; for the Illinois Democracy had been strongly pronounced against slavery, and had so resolved in its Con- ventions for years; whereas the Whig party of Illinois had been fully content to follow its compromising leaders in all their concessions. The greater body of the Whigs came from the slave States, where they were used to slavery, and were firmly opposed to any interference with it in the States where it existed. They had agreed to the last concession of 1850, with its iniquitous Fugitive-slave Law. 515 516 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. These fragments and factions were gathered into the new party, then forming to oppose the extension of slav- ery into Kansas. Lincoln was, if anything, the Whig leader, and the reader can easily imagine the delicacy of his task to get the old-line pro-slavery Whigs into any kind of an anti-slavery party. He had patience, and finally gath- ered most of them into it. With the Whig, as well as with all other parties, it became a regular work of rea- soning and convincing argument. It was difficult work, continuous and laborious, to get all over a great State four hundred miles long and two hundred miles across its center ; but Lincoln was equal to all this, and carried it on vigor- ously, much to the neglect of his professional business. He had large audiences of the brightest young men, which, in this feature, was a great pleasure to him. These meetings often became much more than political gatherings. Thousands of the strong and intelligent young men of the West were started in the course of gaining an education, looking up their country's history, and taking to active industry and to better methods of living and study. Thousands of them were on the eve of migrating into the great Western Territory. There were many Demo- crats leaving their party, but there were more leaders than ordinary members; hence their number was greatly over- estimated. There were so many local leaders that a sur- plus was developed in the Democratic party through its long years of continued control of the State. A great many of these joined the new, forming party, and became very turbulent in some instances, and atoned for their service in their own party by soundly denouncing Douglas as soon as they left it. Of all the elements joining, these former Democrats were the most vehement in their strictures of all the old parties among the elements uniting to form this opposi- tion. They were as eager, ordinarily, to denounce "the Abo- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 517 lition agitators."* These overstrict new recruits, in many instances, refused to support any nominee who had been a Whig. In this way three of the most prominent of them defeated Mr. Lincoln for senator; and at various other times some of them did the same with worthy candidates who had been Whigs in various parts of the State. With all their refusals to support Whigs or Abolitionists, they often made an office, a nomination, or some other per- quisite a condition for deserting their old party wherever they could maneuver with those who could contribute so much in settlement for their changed convictions of duty. These and the Abolitionists, who were more quiet, thoughtful, and conscientious, and who, as a rule, were not politicians, but industrious men that gave little atten- tion to politics, were the elements that were to follow Lin- coln into a great slave-reforming party. His heart was right, and his mind was prepared for the work, or he could not have endured the troubles and disappointments. His great incentives to the w^ork were that he was devoutly impressed with the belief that he was to be a conspicuous leader as early as 1852, when he said as much to me in a short conversation when we parted at Bloomington. "Robert," he said, "the less I support that very obnoxious Fugitive-slave Law, I think, is all the better for me. I have imagined that I am to be something of a leader against slavery encroachments, and that I consider as strik- ing and positive an example as I need to begin with." It will appear plain that Lincoln, as a leader, was con- stantly harassed with contending men and disputing fac- tions. He was compelled to exercise the most patient for- bearance, consideration, and conservatism to lead these incongruous and heterogeneous elements into a great party, whose declaration against slavery was that "it is wrong and a relic of barbarism," but that they "would not inter- 618 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. fere with it where it existed, yet were unalterably opposed to its extension into free territory." In this way, in 1854, began the rushing, storming events of his life's work, that was closed in eleven short years. Douglas was maligned and denounced as no man had ever been in our political history; still he had the pluck, the tenacity, the high skill, to fight it out to the end with those in and out of his party. This was well, and it was surely one of God's providences that he should do so; for in human knowledge and wisdom there seemed to be no one who could lead the Democratic party of the free States, and hold it intact in its allegiance to the Nation. Notwith- standing all the detraction then and since, where would the man have been found to lead the opposing parties as well as these two great leaders? If Douglas had been thrown aside, Atchison, who led armed Missourians into Kansas, would have succeeded Douglas, as it had been planned for, and the hope of any anti-slavery success would have been as nothing. Douglas was denounced thoughtlessly. He could not have prevented the repeal; at least there was no hope of it in that Congress among those who were best informed. There was no more hope that he could resist his party from 1846-58 than there was that Benton could, who was placed where he could have neither voice nor influence. If it had been possible, Douglas would have been relentlessly unhorsed. He was the only Democratic leader left who was in the slave-leaders' way, and, with him retired, the unscrupulous Atchison would have had legislative control of the Senate. In that case, along with his armed inva- sions, he could have suppressed examination of the deviltries going on in the Territories, and thereby have made Kansas a slave State almost certainly. Many of these denunciations, if not all of them, came from the men who had lately been acting with Douglas, THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 519 or in the Whig party, with the same ideas on the slavery- question. They had sanctioned, in one party or the other, all the encroachments up to the final one for repeal, which was wrong, just as all of the concessions had been; but with all said against it, it proved to be just what Judge Douglas claimed in the beginning, a great victory for free- dom. The best part of it, too, was that, if the question had to be reopened, as the South demanded, it was best to have it settled by the people — better than to be juggled over in compromises for another generation in Congress. Douglas held one of the most delicate, exasperating positions ever held by any party leader; and that he held it through such a period of upheaval, angry discussions, and party dissolving proved beyond controversy the wonder- ful energy and capacities of the man. There was no other man living then who could have done it; and no Demo- crat, North or South, since Jackson had shown any desire or the ability to attempt it. The struggle he passed through was greater than Lincoln's during the time, and so severe that it took twenty years or more from his life. In 1856, two years after the repeal, the Democratic party, under the lead of Douglas, carried Illinois for Buch- anan for President, sho\dng beyond doubt how well he had sustained himself with his own people. Those who reck- lessly denounced him were sure to do so anyway; for it seemed to be one of the afflictions of the time, that exag- gerated statement and personal denunciation was generally indulged in. When there was lack of provocation for de- nouncing parties or factions, or men in general, or Douglas in particular, all the rest of mankind in the country united in denouncing the Abolitionists. Douglas was put on trial for leadership from 1854-60 as it seemed no man ever was in our politics. Every leader of his party in the free States went down, and no promi- nent one. made much effort to help or sustain him. It was 520 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the rank and file of liis party in the smaller localities that saved him, who were never in any way derelict or faithless to him. They held, as he did, that if he had erred and made mistakes, it was no more than the party had done, sanctioned by all its leaders. They held that the other leaders were faithless and had fallen because of their sub- serviency to the Southern leaders, and sustained Douglas because of his unflinching integrity in behalf of the rights of his people. Mr. Lincoln entered the "Anti-Nebraska" campaign of 1854 with more zeal in the beginning than he had done in any one since 1848, and with such continuing interest and increase of power that all realized something unusual and w^onderful in the man, his control of himself, his subject, and his influence over his hearers. Not then, but later in his work, we called this marvelous power "Lincoln's inspi- ration."' Such meetings to that day no man ever held. People came from far and near, and waited all day, stood in the wind, the sun, and the rain, uncovered, to hear him, and remained to his close. He did not discourse or lead in the wild and boisterous harangues and rough and ear- nest eloquence of many distinguished men — such as Cor- win, Marshall, and the Ohio and Kentucky school of ora- tors. His was the strong and convincing appeal of a very serious, earnest man, calling the people to their senses in reason and righteousness and fair treatment of our fellow- men of whatever color, condition, race, or creed, and to an observance and enforcement of the great principles of human liberty, upon which our Government was founded. He met Judge Douglas in joint debate at the State Fair near Springfield, in October, and soon afterwards at Peoria. There arose a great demand for copies of the prin- cipal arguments in his addresses, particularly from those who were speaking throughout the State, for use at their meetings. In compliance with this demand, he wrote out THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 521 the substance of his Peoria argument, which was published in almost every newspaper in the State. It will be interest- ing, entertaining, and will best disclose the progress of the movement, and show how far he and many of his fol- lowers had advanced from the line that confined all inter- ference with slavery to opposition to its extension into free territory. He said: "This declared indifference, but as I must think covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, 1 can not but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world, enables the ene- mies of free institutions with plausibilities to taunt us as hypocrites, causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticising the Decla- ration of Independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. ''The doctrine of self-government is right, absolutely and eternally, but it has no just application as here at- tempted; or, perhaps I should rather say, that whether it has such just application depends upon whether a Negro is not or is a man. ^If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may, as a matter of self-government, do just what he pleases with him ; but if the Negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-government to say that he, too, shall not govern himself? When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he gov- erns himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government. That is despotism. What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other man's consent. "The master not only governs the slave without his con- sent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the 522 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. governed an equal voice in the government; that and that only is free government. Slavery is founded in the selfish- ness of man's nature. Opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism, and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Eepeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all com- promises, repeal the Declaration of Independence, repeal all ".| history, still you can not repeal human nature. "I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principle of this Nebraska Bill gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people, a sad evidence that, feeling prosperity, we forget right, that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere. Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old faith for the new faith. Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men were created free and equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men to enslave others is a sacred right of self-government. These principles can not stand together. They are as oppo- site as God and mammon. "Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white in the spirit, if not the blood of the Eevolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of 'moral right' back upon its ex- isting legal rights and its arguments of necessity. Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and the practices and policies which harmonize with it. Let North and South, let all Americans, let all lovers of liberty everywhere, join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 523 shall have so saved it as to make it and to keep it forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, happy people the world over shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest generation." The election for members of the Legislature, who were to choose a United States senator, was vigorously contested. The result was that no party had a clear majority. In this the Democrats, who had long held the State, were defeated. They could only muster forty-one votes for the election of General Shields's successor. No party or individual could command a majority to begin with. Lincoln became the leading candidate of the opposition. He had been elected a member of the Legislature; but he resigned, as the State Constitution excluded all members of the Legislature from being candidates for United States senators. On his resig- nation, Sangamon, being a close county, by the help of a few pro-slavery Whigs, elected a Democratic successor, K B. Judd of Chicago, B. C. Cook of Lasalle, and J. M. Palmer of Macoupin Counties, three Democratic State sen- ators, were united against Douglas; but would not, under any circumstances, vote for a Whig. These held the balance of power in the Legislature. They were able men, who became more or less conspicuous afterwards. One of the complications of the situation, as reported at the time, was that these three were all contingent candidates themselves, and so determined to hold their control that neither one of them would support either one of the others. They were all expecting a call to be the candidate; but none came. When the voting-day arrived, as no one had nominated either one of them, they united on Judge Lyman Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska Democrat. There should have been no candidate against Lincoln among those opposed to the Democratic nominee, for he had done more for their possible success than any other dozen of them. Without his patient, zealous, and continuous work, there could have been no hope 524 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of electing any one against Shields, who would surely have succeeded himself; but these three very good men wanted to negotiate before they entered the ranks of the new party. This default, the want of uniting on Lincoln as the can- didate by reason of their delays and negotiations, resulted in Lincoln's defeat, but not in the election of any one of the three. This did not in any way interrupt or interfere with Lincoln's plan for the organization of the new party, or its success in electing a senator. These three Democrats united on Trumbull, who was an able, experienced, and well- educated man, past middle age, and who upon his election proved true to his changed party relation, and became one of the leaders and prominent debaters in the Senate. At the time Trumbull was one of the most reserved, calm, and undisturbed politicians of the State, if indeed he was a politician in its strict party meaning. He was, of all men, thought of then as the least likely to increase the following so reluctantly started by these no- Whig-supporting Democrats. Perhaps it was the sure knowledge of these quiet, unattractive traits of Trumbull that united these otherwise ununitable three on him. Whatever may have been their purpose, Lincoln was in the work for the good of the cause more than for himself, and was ready, as he always was, to subordinate his own desire. When the time came for him and his friends to elect a senator, and the five free-soil Democrats, these three State senators, and two others, members of the House of Eepresentatives, would not unite in his support, he relinquished his own candidacy, took his forty-six good friends and faithful followers over to the minority, and elected their candidate, Trumbull, to the United States Senate. Lincoln believed at the time, and so did his best friends, that he was giving up a remark- able opportunity, one that his friends very much opposed and regretted; but he certainly developed in his personal defeat a leadership for higher success. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 525 In the contest it was developed that the State had a very thrifty and business-going candidate for senator in the Democratic party, who got six more votes for senator than Shields, who was the party nominee. This candidate was the governor at the time, Joel A. Matteson. He had the knack of doing many things in politics that have been greatly enlarged upon since his day. Mr. Lincoln and sev- eral others understood and knew what his candidacy meant, more than any surface indications revealed. He only lacked two votes of election, and with no agreement among the candidates opposing him, he would soon have gained the two or three necessary votes; but Lincoln, in his superior skill and management, turned his entire vote over to Trum- bull so soon, that the Matteson plan failed. Lincoln was accused of having made an agreement with the denounced Abolitionists, who had elected some six members of the House of Representatives; besides throughout the State they had helped elect every opponent of the regular Democracy who was elected. Lincoln's agreement with them amounted to friendly co-operation, and nothing more. The three senators mentioned, if they did not originate this story of an agreement with the Abolitionists, which would have been a harmless one if it had existed, used it with all their power for Lincoln's defeat. It was a delicate task for Mr. Lincoln to keep his pro- slavery-inclined Whigs from doing some direct or indirect injury to the new-forming party organization. They would condemn and denounce Judge Douglas and his party for the repeal in violent terms, but in the next breath they would denounce Abolitionists more vehemently, and refuse to co-operate with them in organizing the coming party. As a noted instance of this, because of his dislike to per- sonal quarrels, they dissuaded him from Joining in the first meeting for the organization of the Republican party at Springfield, in October, 1854, because Owen Lovejoy, brother 626 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. of the murdered Elijah P. Lovejoy, was at the meeting, and was one of the prominent leaders participating in the organization. Their platform and declaration of principles was a mild one for Abolitionists, for they saw the necessity for all parties opposing slavery to unite, and they were willing to make any possible concession; but the feeling against them was forced, even to personal malignity, in many instances so virulent as to make men personal enemies. In straining these prejudices to their utmost, they prevailed for the time, and kept as good and strong a man as he then was from uniting in the first meeting to organize the anti-slavery party. One of the most convincing tests of the sincerity and good faith of this anti-slavery faction, and one which Mr. Lincoln ever after appreciated, was, that it never wavered in his support because of his absence, but held to him the most faithfully of all. There was a foolish story told about Springfield during this senatorial contest, to the effect that Joshua E. Gid- dings, of Ohio, had instructed the Illinois Abolitionists what they should do; and that in this way these leaders who were so hostile to them personally, and who would not support any of them for office or public position, could easily control the action of the Illinois Abolitionists. This story was used to suppress and keep down some of the most able and promising young men, as they did Lincoln, for United States senator. It was one of the strange things of the time that these befogged old party fossils. Whig and Democrat alike, went about denouncing Abolitionists at home without mercy, but were quite lenient and in pro- fessed line of support, toward Seward, Weed, Greeley, and even "old man Giddings of Ohio." The story may have been used with effect in some places to humiliate those whom they were pleased to denounce. TTJE ^fEN OF HIS TIME. 527 The truth is, however, that the Aholitionists of Illinois were as well able to take care of themselves as those of New England, New York, or Ohio. They knew well enough from the beginning that the strength and spirit of the anti- slavery movement depended on them more than all the other combining factions; for no matter how mild men might be when they first began to resist slavery aggression, all had to grow to Abolitionists when the conflict came. Douglas said, "There are only two parties in this country; one is for our countr}^, and the other is against it." Not- withstanding all this, our faction had the belief, and held it firm, that all anti-slavery factions would come to theirs in the end; but in the gi'owth there was no end of per- secution. When I was a boy growing up in the work of college and university building, and getting something of training and education at Bloomington, the students determined to have two out-and-out college societies, as good as they had any- where. We thought ourselves equal to any boys, no matter whether they grew up taking care of sheep on the Green Mountains, hauling logs down the Penobscot, catching cod- fish along the Massachusetts shores, making butter and Limburger cheese along the Hudson, or raising corn, hogs, and cattle in the West. We were all young Americans, and we were going to have our college societies. The subject was a new one to us, and we had not learned exactly all that was necessary to do. We met and did what men usually do in a quandar}^ appointed a committee of our members to ascertain what we must do, and tell us all about it. After they had done so and were progressing, the committees pretty soon found a subject too deep and difficult to proceed with, without further authority. Another meeting was held Avithout disposing of the more weighty questions, leaving those to be settled and discussed in the future. They agreed that two committees should be appointed to make descrip- 528 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. tive rolls of our one hundred and twenty boys, and divide them about as equally as possible in numbers, and with reference to scholarship, age, religious belief, politics, strength, and their place would be on the ball-ground. I was on one of the committees, but had to be listed like the rest. I did fairly well on the list down to politics. When I was asked, "What party do you belong to?" I re- plied, "The Democratic." The committeeman said: "That will never do, with everybody knowing that you are in the Gridley-Davis office, which Mr. Lincoln makes his also. It would not look respectful for a boy to be a Democrat with such relations. It would look like insubordination on the part of the rising generation, and I advise you to change your answer in some way." The boy seemed quite authori- tative in his manner; so to ease it up and concede some- thing, I replied: "My father was a Democrat. He was a friend and admirer of Judge Douglas, and I have great respect for him too, and believe in the principles of the party with him, except on his present course concerning the slavery question. I am a Democrat, as I understand the name, and the definition of party belief as laid down by Jefferson. I am a believer in the rights of the people, as against any other power or asserted prerogative. But the best way I see for you to arrange this list, if you think it would be better for me not to be classed as a Democrat, as I am opposed to Douglas on the slavery question, will be to put me down as an Abolitionist." "That is worse still," roared out the member of the committee. "My father is an old-line Whig, and John's [who was another member of the committee] father is a Democrat, both from Tazewell County; and neither one of our fathers will allow us to asso- ciate with an Abolitionist. So you see, that no matter how well we think of you, it is out of the question ; and we will let you stand as a Democrat, though it will look strange." This raised my Scotch disposition and "perseverance of THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 529 the saints," all I had at least, and I told ^Iv. Chairman to register me as an Abolitionist, or not at all. The question waxed strong and grew bigger in the college for several days, and then in the town, until it took the power of the Faculty, a body of very good men, who, however, dreaded making the decision. They had either to enforce the society rule, that if they desired a knowledge of the member's polit- ical belief, he had the right to be registered as an Abo- litionist if he wished to be, or they would have to rescind the rule. Thus the writer at about seventeen or eighteen years of age became known as one of "the agitators"' which both old parties waxed so strong in denouncing. One strange thing, however, was, that it was only a few months until our members had increased so rapidly that more than half of the school were Abolitionists. It was like the first plunge into a cold, sparkling stream. You would have a little shiver in jumping in, but as the soft, clean water enfolded you, it was all over, and you realized that you were all right. In this way the writer's ideas took effect, and kept him making recruits for freedom by earnest persuasion, until afterwards in the war he saw thousands of men dying from the wounds they received in defense of the horrid system. Of this system even these men said: *''We have fought, and like many thousands are dying for it, and yet it has kept us poor men all our lives — too poor to study or know about all of its evil." The resolutions of the first meeting called to organize the Eepublican party, at Springfield, in October, 1854, were moderate indeed when compared with those being adopted all over New York, New England, and other free States. On the slavery question they declared their intentions were to restore Kansas and Nebraska as free Territories, recog- nizing that the Constitution vests in the States, not as some hold in Congress, the power to pass laws for the capture and return of fugitives from labor. They demanded the 34 530 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. repeal of the Fugitive-slave Law, an act to restrict slaver)' to the States in which it exists; another to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; another to prohibit the admission of any more slave States, and another to exclude slavery from any Territory where the United States has exclusive jurisdiction, and protested against the acquisition of any more slave territory. When Mr. Gridley was informed of the slavery discus- sion and political classification in our school societies, it brought him into one of his brightest analyzing moods so common when he felt inclined to investigate, dissect, and cut anything open for inspection down to the bottom. He said: "So you foolish, growing-up boys are just as foolish as the rest of mankind, and will get into and take up polit- ical questions and wrangle over them just like men in their shops, stores, and offices. You know I have gone out of polities, and constantly advise my friends and those about me to do the same." I answered: "We do not consider that studying and learning all we can about slavery is altogether a political question; at least we believe that the study of it to some extent should be encouraged, and should not be considered strictly partisan politics, but a labor question, if no further than that which in some way affects us all of the time." Mr. Gridley continued: "It is a political question of the highest importance, no difference what men say or believe, or how much men and parties say that it is to be confined here or there. They may declare as they please that it is not to enter into this or that party or State or neighbor- hood. Church or society; still as you boys that should re- member your mothers better have found out, it is a very live question. It is the dividing question of the hour, and people are considering and discussing it everywhere, and have a right to, and as free-believing and free-talking peo- ple we must soon come to the point where we will sustain THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 531 every one in his right to do so, and let our people wrangle over slavery all they want to. "The ijnportant political questions of onr country are the live ones on which the people make the clearest and sharpest divisions; and as long as this is a free country the people will and must discuss and decide all questions as they desire. Stilh you know that I think it is wise to keep out of politics, so you can fit yourself and pursue some re- munerative business. "We will not take our school studies, our educational and college society rules from Eichmond, nor our theology from South Carolina. We do n't want partisan politics in our schools or churches, but we will assert and preserve the right to discuss all public questions wherever wc please; and if you foolish and ambitious boys really want to discuss the slavery question, or the size of the moon and whose face is on it, in your school, and divide on it and have records and rolls, we must and will bring the whole power of the city of Bloomington to sustain you, and the State if we need it. You wall find the Fells, Brookaw, McClun, Dr. Wor- rell, and no end of them of the free State, free-soil section, more than able for all the pro-slavery out-and-outers and their contingent helpers, all under Judge Davis, who are never very happ}-, but the most so when they mangle dictionaries to scare us about the disturbing Aboli- tionists." It was in this way that Mr. Gridley came to our side of the discussion of the slavery question, and out of this came the reference to my Abolitionism when he referred to it at the first meeting I had with Mr. Lincoln in Bloomington in the early fifties. Bloomington was then, like all such to^\'ns and villages and neighborhoods, in a perpetual dis- cussion of the slavery issue. The citizens were a quiet, orderly, industriously-turned people; nevertheless they waxed warm over slavery, and a history of it even in that 532 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. small town would be full of interest. Men like Mr. Gridley and the others named, with Jesse Fell generally in the lead, and Gridley never far behind, cut the subject open to the bottom, and led in every movement of the people to discuss or decide any public matter they wanted to. They kept up the discussion until the Abolitionists carried McLean County by over twelve hundred. It was a common occurrence in those early days for a minister, college professor, and schoolteacher to be taken aside and admonished and cautioned against expressing "Abolitionist doctrines," as they disturbed the public peace, and created dissensions or lack of harmony and success in the churches, schools, or societies where they were intro- duced. This cautioning and lack of manhood sort of way of dealing with a great public and labor-disrupting system grew weaker and weaker, and finally went down. The bottom turned up and things shifted the other way, when about all the free State people took up the active defense of our free- labor system, very much sooner than the two generations which ]\Ir. Gridley, far-seeing as he was, said it would re- quire. Before the war period began, colleges. Church socie- eties, and neighborhoods were hunting the Nation up and down for the sharpest-tongued men, who could arraign slavery and its atrocious evils in the strongest terms. " All this came and passed, but not all the keen satires of Gridley nor the life-tenure of the offices he had, could shake Judge Davis out of his denunciation of Abolitionists as dangerous disturbers of the peace. There were many of these half-and-half doubters on the border and in every free State who were a dead load for freedom, that no leadership but Lincoln's would have tolerated, and which no other leader could have endured but himself. It was the incubus of such men that held a restraint upon Mr. Lincoln. He knew and understood them much better than any one of his time; and disagreeable as it was to him. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 633 he had to sit down time and time again, and wait for their action. The Free Soilers, Abolitionists, and all the out- spoken anti-slavery people, who were constantly denounced and annoyed in their business, and who were called imprac- ticable, excitable, and incapable men, were always the ones called upon to forbear and be patient. They submitted as patient men, and served on without qualifying conditions, faithful to the end, and without the hope of office or high station. Providence was over all this, and it was well so for the final victory; but to the toil-worn laborer in the political contests, whose reward was in his own sense of right and justice, did it seem long to wait. In the work of organizing the Eepublican party, in October, 1854, these Abolition-denouncing Whigs and former Democrats compelled him to decline service in committee and other work. If this conduct had alienated these same denounced Abolitionists, as the Free-soil Whigs and Demo- crats threatened it would them, and taken them from Lin- coln's support, the Eepublican party could never have had successful existence. On the contrary, when these de- nounced people learned the truth and saw the difficulties surrounding him, and the incongruous elements out of which the new party must grow to its strength, they left him to take the course he found best. They were fully con- vinced that, of all men living, he was the one best fitted to combine these heterogeneous factions into a party of any kind for united action. In Seward's progress it was better. He was leading in a steady, valiant career, with no hindrances in his own ranks, and his contestants mainly in his front, where he had few of the trying difficulties in organization which Lincoln had to contend with. He had to deal with and harmonize, among others, two generations of immigrants from the slave States, who had been more effectually taught that Abolitionists were disunionists and more dangerous agitators, than the great 534 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. truth that the evil system of slavery was rotting out the liberties of a free people. This early trial of patient waiting and careful gathering up of all factional elements proved to be the schooling and experience he most needed for the greater contest then crowding down upon us. In the beginning, Seward and other such leaders seemed to be making better progress, and they were certainly having less contentions and difficulties among their followers; yet when the great war waged its furious destruction and rent asunder so many lightly-made combinations, Lincoln gathered his apparently unmixable factions and welded them into one incomparable body of Western men. Both he and the}' had more of courage and less of doubt than the great leader Seward, who had mar- shaled his hosts so easily and promptly in the beginning. With this understanding we can read in the lines, and be- tween them, in the following note to the Eepublican com- mittee of the first Eepublican Convention of which we know anything, how cautious and reserved his relation had to be to the forming elements of the great party. To the chair- man of the Organizing Committee, of which he had been appointed a member, he wrote: "While I have pen in hand allow me to say that I have been perplexed to understand why my name was placed on that committee. I was not consulted on the subject, nor was I apprised of the appointment until I discovered it by accident two or three weeks afterward. I suppose my oppo- sition to the principle of slavery is as strong as that of any member of the Eepublican party, but I had also supposed that the extent to which I feel authorized to carry that opposition practically was not at all satisfactory to that party. The leading men who organized that party were present on the 4th of October at the discussion between Douglas and myself at Springfield, and had full opportunity to not misunderstand my position." TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 535 This was in October, ISoi, and it is certainly the most timid and indecisive expression Mr. Lincoln ever made on the subject. The balloting that resulted in Trumbull's election is best described in Lincoln's correspondence with E. B. Wash- burne, a Whig member of Congress from Illinois, who was then in Washington: "February 9, 1855. "All that remained of the Anti-Nebraska force, except- ing Judd, Cook, Palmer, Baker, and Allen of Madison, and two or three of the secret Matteson men, would go into caucus, and I could get the nomination of that caucus. But the three senators and one of the two representatives above named Vould never vote for a Whig,' and incensed some thirty Whigs to think they would never vote for the man of the five. "In the meantime our friends, with a view of detaining our expected bolters, had been turning from me to Trum- bull, till he had risen to thirty-five, and I had been reduced to fifteen. These would never desert me except by my direction; but I became satisfied that if we could prevent Matteson's election in one or two ballots more, we could not possibly do so a single ballot after my friends should begin to return to me from Trumbull. So I determined to strike at once ; and accordingly advised my remaining friends to go for him, which they did, and elected him on that, the tenth ballot. Such is the way the thing was done. I think you would have done the same under the circumstances; though Judge Davis, who came down this morning, declared he never would have consented to the forty-seven (oppo- sition) men being controlled by the five. I regret my defeat, but am not nervous about it." In this way Trumbull was elected senator, and the sale of a United States senatorship was circumvented. \ 536 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. As the organizing work came upon him more heavily, and he realized the strength of the contending forces and the weakness of our own slowly-uniting factions, he gained strength; as the subject grew in magnitude, he gained in capacity, experience, and the higher qualities of a great leader to meet the coming crisis, and in the following sum- mer of 1855 had almost reached the solid ground of the coming conflict, '"That the Nation could not exist half slave and half free." The following letter reveals his wonderful growth dur- ing the past year: "Speingfield, Illinois, August 15, 1855. "Hon. George Eobertson, Lexington, Kentucky: "My Dear Sir, — The volume you left for me has been received. I am really grateful for the honor of your kind remembrance, as well as for the book. The partial reading I have already given it has afforded me much of both pleas- ure and instruction, "It was new to me that the exact question which led to the Missouri Compromise had risen before it rose in regard to Missouri, and that you had taken so prominent a part in it. Your short but able and patriotic speech on that occa- sion has not been improved upon since by those holding the same views; and, with all the light you then had, the views you took appear to me as very reasonable. "You are not a friend of slavery in the abstract. In that speech you spoke of the peaceful extinction of slavery, and used other expressions indicating your belief that the thing was, at some time, to have an end. Since then we have had thirty-six years of experience; and this experience has dem- onstrated, I think, that there is no peaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. "The signal failure of Henry Clay and other good and great men, in 1849, to effect anything in favor of gradual THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 537 emancipation in Kentucky, together with a thousand other signs, extinguishes that hope utterly. On the greater ques- tion of liberty as a principle, we are not what we have been. When we were the political slaves of King George, and wanted to be free, we called the maxim that 'all men are created equal' a self-evident truth; but now when we have grown, fat, and have lost all dread of being slaves our- selves, we have become so greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim 'a self-evident lie.' The Fourth of July has not quite dwindled away; it is still a great day for burn- ing firecrackers. ''That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery has itself become extinct with the occasion and the men of the Eevolution. Under the impulse of that occa- sion, nearly half of the States adopted systems of emanci- pation at once; and it is a significant fact that not a single State has done the like since. So far as peaceful, voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the Negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation of a free mind, is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of the souls of the finally impenitent. The Autocrat of all the Eussias will resign his crown and pro- claim his subjects free Republicans, sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves. "Our political problem now is. Can we as a Nation con- tinue together permanently forever half slave and half free? The problem is too mighty for me. May God in his mercy superintend the solution! "Your much obliged friend and humble servant, "A. Lincoln." This letter is the strongest indication of character up to the time, and shows conclusively the influences that were developing his strong analytical mind to the position that the contention would be narrowed down to one between 538 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. slavery and freedom. This letter was not published until after the war. It reveals the change going on in his mind and the stronger position he was reaching against slavery. With the confidence that existed between us, and my frequent declarations that I was an Abolitionist, and that all factions in opposition to the slave-leaders' party, then in control, would finally unite in that belief from necessity if for no better reason, I had the best opportunities of know- ing what Mr. Lincoln's would be as early as 1851-52. But I knew as well, that there were strong men whose counsel and position he could not wholly overcome, who were hold- ing him down to the most conservative expression, if not to their own belief. Among the most prominent of these were Judge Logan, Major Stuart, Jesse K. Dubois, the Speeds, Senator Benton, and David Davis. CHAPTER XXIV. KANSAS became part of the United States by the pur- chase of the territory from France in 1803. The negotiation was conducted by Kobert Livingston, of New York, and James Monroe, of Virginia, on the 30th of April, under the direction of President Jefferson.' It was made directly with the great Napoleon and his Min- ister of Finance. The sum was very large for those days; but it was an acquisition of such incalculable value to us as to be well worth ten times what it cost. The territory gained was more valuable and of greater extent than the thirteen Colonies and all they owned at the close of the Revolution. The price and terms of payment were eleven million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in United States bonds, at six per cent interest, with the interest payable in Paris, London, or Amsterdam. The principal was payable at the United States treasury in Washington in sums of three million dollars annually, commencing fifteen years after the bonds were issued. The commis- sioners also agreed the same day to pay twenty million francs, which additional sum was to be applied by France in payment of claims due American citizens, making the entire cost of Louisiana Territory fifteen million dollars. The act of Congress for the admission of Missouri as a State in 1820, constantly referred to as the Missouri Com- promise, provided that "in all the territory ceded by France to the United States under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of latitude 36 degrees thirty minutes north, ex- cepting only such part as is included within the limits of 539 540 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the State of Missouri contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in the punish- ment of crime, whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, is prohibited." Thus in law it rested until May 1854 — for thirty-four years — until the two Territories of Kansas and Nebraska were organized. Section 14 of the act of organization declared that "the Constitution and all laws of the United States which are applicable shall be and remain in force in these Territories, except the act known as the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which is de- clared inoperative and void, because of the adoption of the later measures, known as the Compromises of 1850." About the same time, probably as a result of this ex- cited discussion in Congress, which soon spread all over the country, the Legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut issued charters to emigrant aid societies. Their objects were peaceful and harmless to any one, except those who were determined, law or no law, to make Kansas a slave State. They were to aid people seeking homes in the West by collecting and publishing in convenient form all useful information for Western emigrants, and indicating the best routes of travel and all matters of transportation, which were of much importance in view of the long and tedious journeys westward. They managed such things to the benefit of the emigrants, providing for regular dates, when a number could go at the same time and at much lower rates of fare. There were perhaps two or three thousand people, mostly from New England and New York, thus aided, who nevertheless paid their own expenses to Kansas and Nebraska. This was a very inconsiderable number in filling up such vast Territories, and not the twentieth of those who could have gone and found better homes and better means of living than they had on their own poor and wornout farms. By far the largest emigration was from the surround- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 541 ing and contiguous Western and Northwestern States and Territories. This has always been the way of settlement for the principal part of any of our growing Territories and States as well. Much was said of these "Yankee Aid So- cieties," and their work and purposes were exaggerated to suit the desires of those who wanted to take slavery into Kansas with the aid of Missouri border societies under Atchison, "peacefully and unbeknownst" to anybody until it was riveted down past removal. But slavery could not have been fastened down and held there in those Territories in that way if those aid societies had not sent a man, a prayer-book, or a Sharp's rifle. The emigration that went west to Kansas and Nebraska in the covered wagons from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mich- igan, Wisconsin, and Iowa by the hundred thousands, went of their own accord; and these would have fought four or five times as hard to make Kansas a free State if it had been necessary. It is true that most of them went armed, as it was then the custom for those emigrating to make up pioneer and Western settlements. These movers' wagons and their people — the movers and their caravans — were a peculiar American institution. The wagons generally held the family and their belongings, while the able-bodied men trudged along the roads or cleared the way, and took a general oversight of the work and what they had, whether much or little. Ordinarily they were peaceable, hard-working men; but if any sought to take unfair advantage of them, they found men well able to take care of themselves. They carried a loaded gun or two strapped on the inside or outside of every wagon, within convenient reach; and there was always in sight or within ready call a very capable man or boy to use the weapons in case of necessity. There was a pretty large emigration from Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri into Kansas, aside from those taken 542 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. there and going vohmtarih^ to make it a slave State. Many of these people, although from slave States, went thither to be rid of slavery, and became constant and courageous friends of freedom, and fought for it through all the bloody work to the end. There were perhaps a hundred or more slaveholders who moved across the line into Kansas from Missouri, with about twice as many slaves, whose purpose was to fix the slave-system on the Territory, and so announce it by di- rection of Atchison. Their further purpose was to secure a large body of public lands at low prices for each one. K party of thirty or more, with Mr. Branscomb, of Massa- chusetts, founded the city of Lawrence early in 1854, which was about the first permanent free State settlement. Later in the season, Charles Eobinson and S. C. Pomeroy joined them with another colony of seventy people. About the same time there was a meeting in Platte County, Missouri, convenient to the Kansas border. Sena- tor Atchison was the leading spirit at the meeting and chief director of the movement on the part of the pro- slavery managers. This meeting gave out the truth and revealed the processes by which they were to effect their purposes. Similar meetings, under the same leadership, were held all along the Missouri border for almost two hundred miles, which was a tolerably well-settled region. This Atchison, whom the slave-propaganda at Washington had planned to make chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories in place of Douglas, said to his hearers in a speech, which was published and circulated among them for their use: "When you are in one day's journey of the Territory, when your peace, your quiet, and your property depend on your action, you can, without unusual exertion, send five hundred of your young men who will vote in favor of your institutions. Should each county in Missouri do its duty, the question will be decided quietly and peaceably THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 543 at the bcallot-box. If we are defeated, then Missouri and all the other Southern States will have shown themselves recreant to their interests, and will deserve their fate." The meeting resolved "that this Platte County Defens- ive Association will hold itself in readiness, whenever called upon by any of the citizens of Kansas, to assist in remov- ing any and all emigrants who go there under the auspices of jS'orthern emigrant aid societies," They more com- monly called them "Yankee Nigger-stealing Aid Societies." The Platte County Society was not laggard or lacking in the prosecution of its horrible work. It kept holding its meetings, and under Atchison's and their own zealous la- bors much was done, and many instructions were promul- gated. At one meeting, held in August, a formal resolu- tion was adopted, urging slaveholders to move into the new Territory with tlieir slaves, and declaring that their association would guarantee their protection. There were a number of these slavery-projecting secret societies in Western Missouri before the passage of the Kansas-Ne- braska act, which fact was disclosed by the Congressional investigation of 1856. The history of the governors sent to Kansas to make it a slave State discloses a dastardly and despicable piece of work, wrought out during Pierce's and Buchanan's Ad- ministrations and the ascendency of the pro-slavery regime. A great deal of craft and scheming was exercised in the selection of governors for Kansas. It was an honorable position. The appointee would be conspicuous, and in the rapid turning of events he might win distinction; and so the pro-slavery leaders planned to have some Northern men appointed, whom they could make pay for the distinction, or the chance to win it, by discretion and silence after they were appointed. This, as they reasoned with themselves, would show entire fairness on their part. Both Adminis- trations decided that, under the circumstances, the office 644 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. of governor should go to some Xorthern Democrat; but the pro-slavery leaders determined that he should not be an obstruction to their plan. Under the operation of this plan there was one firm hold which they took and prepared for long before it was determined that some pliant North- ern man should be appointed governor. This hold was that Atchison should nominate the Secretary of the Territory, to act as governor in the absence of the appointee. Very little was left for a governor to do; but everything the slave-leaders could not manage from Washington was turned over to this secretary to carry out in all its details; hence whoever might be governor, they provided that there was to be no doubt whatever as to who should be this secretary. It happened as it was desired. One Woodson, a reliable selection of Atchison's, was appointed, and held the place until the vicious scheme to make Kansas a slave State failed, as much from the overdone ruffianism of Western Missouri bandits as from the defense of freedom by the free State settlers. The conspiracy was successful up to a certain point. There was no part of the scheme that was not provided for so far as the audacious leaders could anticipate. The story of the war for freedom in Kansas has filled volumes. All of them are full of interest, and amply repay any pa- triot's study and patient investigation. Of one thing, how- ever, all of them should be relieved — the expressed belief that there was any doubt, accident, or uncertainty on the part of the slave oligarchy in their plan to project slavery into the Territory. Jefferson Davis was the head and undisputed leader in the despotism, and before the war, through these two Ad- ministrations, the Presidents, Cabinets, and the Supreme Court were as dutiful and subservient to his control as his slave State of Mississippi. High political contentions THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 545 and angry personal disputes were in progress all about him; but they never caused him to deviate from his policy. He eitheir brought them all under absolute control, or drove them out of his party organization as far as it was possible. In his shrewd way of using every available aux- iliary for the promotion of his cause, no man that held political influence was ever neglected or escaped his scheming attempts. Some men were loaded down with the dead weight of slavery extension in the free States, hateful and repugnant as the system was to the people of their States. To begin with, in this war for freedom, the records, seals, and instruments of writing bearing authority, and the pre- serving and promulgating of what they had of law, were all in the hands of this pro-slavery secretary of the Territory, Woodson. In this situation Jefferson Davis was in supreme control, and Atchison was field-marshal in command of the pro-slavery marauders on the border. Their plans, with Woodson acting as governor, were carried on through much of the first two years. Three of the Northern governors revolted and either resigned or were removed, giving Woodson the advantage of acting as governor through the periods of changing, the delays of those leaving, and the time taken for the coming of the new appointees. In this way Atchison prevailed to the point that Woodson was gov- ernor through the lawmaking period of the Territory, when their plans were so far successful that, in their "bogus laws," slavery was fastened on the Territories, at least in nam.e. Besides this, the civil war for slavery exten- sion had begun. They had the courts, as they had planned, ready, at Atchison's move or nod, to do his bidding. They had Stringfellow, a Missourian, with a newspaper just across the river in Kansas, but whose home was in Missouri. He called his paper the Squatter Sovereign, possibly in derision of 35 546 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the plan of the free Northern Democracy to help the squat- ters get homes where they could vote slavery down. But of a truth, the newspaper was nobody's sovereign, and the Stringfellow that could be stretched across the muddy Mis- souri Elver was as dirty a vassal as Atchison ever took across the border. In this hostile invasion there was John Calhoun, of the "candle-boxes," who knew how to use them, with a full, certified, made-up, and authenticated election in them, to preserve, conceal, and, at the moment, produce them — records, ballots, and all — in form and substance, just as Atchison's plans required. There were so many of them, with so many offices and places to fill, that it would be over-tedious to enumerate them. From the governor and secretary down it was to be a whole made-up invasion of Government — military, civil, and local, all provided — from Missouri into Kansas. There were to be judges, or those who were to be so counted, a Legislature, Territorial and county officers, sheriffs, magistrates, deputies, some who could read and write to keep the records and the post-offices, sufficiently educated to exclude "the incendiary abolition and aid societies' newspapers," all under the pay of the United States or of the Territory that was to be. They were to have, in all, a full complement of men and materials ready to move in a compact body and make the slave Territory at once, with all the furnishings and equipment and para- phernalia of authority about it, with the rude belongings of a slaveholder's dependency. But more than these, there was, and had to be, an armed body of Missourians, of at least twenty-five hundred men, officered, divided into conven- ient commands, subsisted, sheltered, and supplied with am- munition for the peaceful invasion of Kansas, to help their friends, who were going there afterwards, to make it a slave Territory. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 547 All of this, which is barely outlined here, was done. This same Atchison gathered up on the border of Mis- souri, mobilized civil and military bodies, and equipped and formed them in the best ways for his organization. He held under him this command for months, with ability and devo- tion to his scheme and purpose that would have made him famous in any worthy cause. This second man in power and distinction in our country at the time levied, formed, and conducted one of the most diabolical invasions ever led into any peaceful country against the sacred rights and liberties of its people. He maintained his campaigns and desultory incursions, armored assaults and civil war, against these free people for almost two years. Missouri grew tired of this border dictator, and retired him from the United States Senate when his term expired; but notwithstanding this, he afterwards pursued his wretched work for a year or more, fully sustained by the slave-leaders at Washington. There is another item in his bad career that needs something of explanation. His principal followers were Missourians; but they were a band of adventurers and lawbreakers who were gathered there by this leader, and were the siftings and outlawed despera- does of many States, free as well as slave. The most of them were safer with Atchison than anywhere else at the time; for they had been lawbreakers elsewhere before they became these desperate border bandits. With this condition of things in Kansas throughout thrf greater part of 1854, recognizing the progress that followed up to 1856, it was not strange that the President should declare in a message to Congress that "slavery existed as surely in Kansas as in Georgia.'' It was in this condition, when all seemed to be lost, and when the free State people seemed wornout and defeated in the struggle, that God interposed to save Kansas and the Nation from the lash of the slave-master. 548 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Some time in July, 1854, President Pierce's Adminis- tration, with the consent of Jefferson Davis, found a sim- ple-minded Pennsylvania Democrat — Andrew H. Heeder — whom they sent out to Kansas as its first governor. In his preparatory sort of civil service examination, or test of qualification, he said he "believed in selling niggers just as much as he did in selling horses, and would like if he owned a number to take with him." For awhile after his arrival at Atchison's seat of government on the Missouri Eiver, he was impressed with the belief that he was the governor, unaware and oblivious of the arrangement that he was to be honored and paid and hold discreet silence concerning all that Atchison and Woodson had acted upon. In truth it must be written that Eeeder resented their authority not very long after his arrival, and was altogether guileless enough to believe that he could resist them. He issued his first proclamation for an election to be held November 29th, to elect a delegate to Congress. Atchison was not prepared for this; but he sounded the alarm at once, got ready in short order, invaded the Territory with his horde of "peaceful" armed men, took violent possession of nine out of the seventeen polling places, and polled and counted 1,729 illegal against 1,114 legal votes. They had elected Whitfield, late an Indian agent and a reliable pro- slavery Administration office-holder, delegate for the Ter- ritory in Congress. The invaders were somewhat chagrined ; indeed, it was said that some of them were furious over their indecisive triumph, on learning that Whitfield had been voted for also by the legal voters, and therefore elected without opposition. The few free State people at that early day believed that, with the experience Whitfield had, and his knowledge of the condition of the new settlement, it was best for all to unite and elect him, and that, as far as they knew, he was the best fitted to represent them; and with something of faith in the man's honesty they did so. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 549 A year later there would have been no free State ballots wasted on Whitfield; but for the first winter, and through the first election, they preserved the peace in voting for Whitfield. Eeeder did not realize the strength and formidable character of the movement to take slavery into Kansas. At the time public disapproval, the dividing of the Demo- cratic party on the slavery issue, and the opposition fusion House of Representatives, with X. P. Banks as speaker, were all that was in the way of the easy introduction and supremacy of the pro-slavery party and slavery in Kansas; but these were strong enough, as they were growing, to keep alive the determination of the anti-slavery people everywhere, with some promise of relief to the sorely-tried settlers Avho were fighting for freedom. Before the election of the next year, Eeeder very prudently authorized a care- ful enumeration of the citizens of the Territory, which was completed in February, 1855. On the result of this census it was found that the total population was 8,601, of which 2,905 were legal voters. Based on this census, the governor apportioned the Terri- tory into legislative districts, appointed judges, officers, and clerks, and ordered an election for members of the Legis- lature to be held March 30th. He took every precaution, and prepared as well as he could for a fair election. He recognized the existing divisions of "free State and slave State," and divided the officers between them, judges and constables who were to act, conduct an honest election, and preserve the peace. At the polling places in the counties along the Missouri border he appointed two free State and one slave State man for each as judges, with the desire to have a fair vote in recognizing and encouraging them. He published and promulgated specific and rigid rules for con- ducting the election, among them positive instructions that the judges and all the officers should be sworn, declare 550 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. themselves qualified voters under the Territorial laws, and that the constables should protect the voting-places from disturbances and the voters from any interference or violence. As soon as the election was fixed and proclaimed, the "Platte County Association,"' "the Blue Lodges," and other pro-slavery societies, were informed and ordered to be in readiness for their work by the field-marshal. No detail was to be left unattended to or neglected, and none were. This was their culminating advance in their career of bor- der outrage and outlawry, when they were creating a Legis- lature that was to take slavery into Kansas, with mobilized militia to enforce its acts. In order to arouse these maraud- ers to action, meetings were common, where all free State people were denounced and threatened with their fierceness at the safe Platte County distance. They were kept at work recruiting, drilling, arming, and training men and horses for the peaceful work of an all-night invasion in forced marches. Subsistence and whisky were always at hand. They were filled full of false stories, that thousands of recruits were being sent thither by the Northern aid socie- ties, and these poor wretches believed them. These border bandits were trained to the savagery in which they were to engage with all the venom of infuriated men full of liquor. Their outrageous work was to be done, and these wretched victims, whose life was not worth so much as a slave's, were poisoned and stimulated for their deadly work and plan to drive the free State people from their homes. This second invasion of Atchison and his horde of armed brigands was much more formidable than the first. The census had revealed the population to him as well as to the free State people, giving the detailed information of each lo- cality and the number of legal voters in each precinct. With this information he doubled his force to five thousand, and proceeded into the Territory in the night of the day be- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 651 fore election, and took possession of every polling place, and managed the election as he and his indescribable in- vaders desired. As reported, Atchison's election resulted in 6,218 votes cast; 5,437 for the pro-slavery candidates and only 791 for the free State ones. The Congressional In- vestigating Committee disclosed the whole fraud and dis- honesty of it during the following year, v/hen they found that 1,410 legal votes were cast, and 4,808 illegal ones by Atchison's invaders from Missouri. Every one of the pro-slavery candidates claimed his election. Governor Reeder had fixed his residence at Shaw- nee Mission, about four miles west of Western Missouri, the most central rendezvous of the invaders. It was the seat of an old Indian mission not far below Leavenworth on the Missouri Eiver. These legislators of Atchison's — invaders themselves, and sustained by the general horde — were mostly armed, and were accompanied and protected by an armed company of their rogues when they called on Governor Eeeder, after five days for filing contests had ex- pired, and demanded certificates for all their candidates in the seventeen districts. In anticipation of trouble, the governor had surrounded the premises with an armed guard, but much inferior in numbers to the assembled rascals and legislators. How- ever, he admitted part of their force and all the demand- ing candidates, making the party of rogues in all about equal to the governor's guard. These two forces divided the lower part of the house, each one occupying its own side; and thus the armed contestants parleyed, disputed, and wrangled for as much as two days, at the end of which the governor yielded. He issued certificates to the candidates of eleven out of the seventeen districts which they claimed. In six of the districts he ordered new elections, not on the ground of open violation of the law, the Missouri invasion, and the monstrous fraud which there was no attempt to 552 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. conceal, but on the flimsy plea of mutilated records and viva voce voting in place of ballot, as the law required. This demand and receipt of certificates of election under duress was a fitting climax to the lawless invasion that for a time Eussianized one of the Territories of the United States. In the six districts in which the governor ordered new elections five elected free State representatives, and most of the others would have done so with the same op- portunity. The invaders had seized and secured the Legis- lature beyond doubt, and, having about all they wanted, they did not care to contest the balloting, when, with much less trouble, they could control the Legislature. The free State men subsequently elected were so outraged at the con- duct of the invaders that they never qualified as members of Atchison's border Legislature. After the outrage had been fully accomplished, Governor Eeeder awoke from his sense of believing that any of these ruffians cared anything more for him than his assent to the legality of their organization. He realized, in a meas- ure at least, his inability to make the least impression on the slavery field-marshal, the string-stretcher, the mimic Calhoun, or any considerable part of the invaders; but he was still full of the belief that the honorable and high- minded men of the Administration at Washington would aid him in preventing the consummation of the outrageous designs of these marauders, if no more. In a few weeks he hastened to the Capital, to lay the entire proceeding be- fore them, and get personal instruction as to the best and most effective means of remedying the evil, and how to pre- vent such crimes against liberty in the future. When he reached Washington he found to his astonish- ment that he was neither desired nor expected there. He saw that the pro-slavery Vice-President was doing what was expected of him, and that the whole Administration was builded and held up on his own previously expressed THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 653 idea and qualification for office, '"the equality of horses and niggers." For any good such a mission as his could accomplish he might as well have gone with a friendly greet- ing and a petition for justice from the Boston tea-upsetters to King George as to go to the Administration of Jeffer- son Davis and Franklin Pierce. Finding his pilgrimage of no avail, and sorely liumili- ated, as one who would not openly denounce such conduct, he wended his weary way back, with much less knowledge of what to do than before his visit. But the foreseeing Pierce and Davis Administration knew positively what would happen to him. The weak, disconsolate governor still halted, but returned. When he did return, his first act was to veto onf of the first laws passed by the invaders' Legis- lature. Stringfellow, of the Squatter Sovereign, whose main pur- pose was to unsquat freedom in Kansas, and drive the free settlers out of it, was delighted in Eeeder's discomfiture. He was one of the chief leaders of the invasion, who, of course, easily got into their Legislature; for they had need of him and his paper as a very necessary part of the machin- ery to carry on their diabolism. They elected him speaker of their emigrated Legislature, when, in his ecstasy, he shouted "Eureka!" all too soon; but a man who could serve Atchison at that time through such devious sin could not have done better or have been more harmoniously wicked. In his joy over this swelling madness and triumph of evil as he verily believed, he said: "To have intimated one year ago that such a result would have been wrought out, one would have been thought a visionary. For me to have pre- dicted that to-day a Legislature would assemble, almost unanimously pro-slavery, with myself for speaker, I would have been thought mad. The South must and will prevail if the Southern people but half do their duty. In less than nine months from this day Kansas will have formed a Cozi- 554 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. stitution and be knocking at the door of the Union for ad- mission. I predict that in the session of 1856 two sena- tors from the slaveholdiug State of Kansas will take their seats, and Abolitionism will be driven from our halls of legislation." Reeder was sorely grieved and disappointed. He was so completely helpless that he was not respected; but, with all this, when he had endured enough disgrace to have driven an inebriate from his cups, he was pleading with and helping these slavery idolaters in the worship of their Baal. He charged the responsibility of these fearful ma- raudings to "the destructive spirit of Abolitionism," and begged these uncaught rascals of the border to do better in the future, while they were mocking his fear and weak- ness. How his demands and reasonings for more respect- ful observance of decency, so remote in their reckonings, sounded in their slavery-seared minds and hardened hearts is best told in the language of Stringfellow's Sovereign: "On Tuesday the Governor sent in his message, which you will find is very well calculated to have its effect with the Pennsylvania Democracy. If he were trustworthy, I would be disposed to compliment the most of it; but, knowing how corrupt the author is, he not expecting to remain long with us, I pass it by." Eeeder tried to be firm. Some who knew him said that, before his term and struggle with these men was over. He believed he was, but if so, he was only so much further deceived; for he never had the strength and virility to deal with such border outlaws. He vetoed the first bill sent him after his return from Washington, whereupon this in- vaders' assembly, with no right to legislate for anybody, met in joint session, and boldly requested President Pierce to remove their governor. Their messenger on the way to Washington with their weighty appeal read in the newspapers that "the President THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 555 had removed Governor Reeder." The reasons given for his removal were that there had been some irregularities in the sale of certain Indian lands under his control, which was no more than a silly pretense. If he had continued to serve the border marshal and his horde, he could have done as he wished with the lands; or, if he had aided them further and submitted, as he did in the beginning, he would have been retained ; but the time had arrived when, if he intended to enforce honest and fair processes of law, his removal was needed. It was as true, also, that they did not desire any successor for awhile, and that they industriously proceeded to enact their whole code of slavery legislation, with Wood- son as acting governor. This invaders' conspiring body, which was, in form, a Legislature, had been given authoritative existence, not in accordance with the organic law of the Territory, as many have written, but in plain defiance of both its letter and spirit. To get authentication of its legal existence was the only necessity that led them to accept such a governor as Eeeder. When that was done, and he would not counte- nance their flagrant violation of law, he became entirely useless to them. They wanted him speedily removed, which was done; and they did not desire an immediate appoint- ment of his successor — not for some weeks at least — which was also done. Eeeder's removal took place July 26th. Wil- son Shannon, of Ohio, was appointed governor September 1st. During this interval of thirty-six days, and until the arrival of Shannon, Secretary Woodson w^as acting governor. In this time this slavery-serving body, actually under Atchi- son, with every follower and henchman on duty, and every line of its dastard work anticipated and provided for, held a high carnival of shameless and unconcealed usurpation. They adopted the slave-code of Missouri to save time and work, with torturing penalties as much more cruel, debased, and degraded, as the slave-driver Atchison de- 556 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. scended below Benton in conduct of public affairs. They put in operation in form of law the slave-catching code, as destitute of mercy or human rights as these brutalized wretches were ignorant and oblivious of any better quali- ties in men. They enacted a code of laws that Satan, in his cunning and experience, if not in his wisdom, would not have done; and, not content with this, they flaunted their ignorance and cruelty to the world in what they called a report of their Judiciary Committee. They said in part: ''The question of slavery is one that convulses the whole country, from the boisterous Atlantic to the mild Pacific. This state of things has been brought about by the fanati- cism of the iSTorth and East, while up to this time the people of the South and those of the IS'orth who desire the per- petuation of the Union, and are devoted to the laws, have been entirely conservative. But the time is coming — yes, it has already arrived — for the latter to take a bold stand that the Union and law may not be trampled in the dust." Slavery had triumphed. In the interval between Eeeder and Shannon it had been firmly fixed in the law; and some two or three hundred slaves had been taken into the Terri- tory. The slaveholder and the pro-slavery Administration firmly believed that it was all settled. Of Eeeder little more need be said. He had disappointed both sides. He was not a bad man, only a weak one, gone astray with the prevailing frailty of accepting position that only a strong, well-grounded man could take and fill to his own and the people's satisfaction. If he had been such, there was a time when he could have dispersed those bor- der outlaws, and called the law-abiding people of the coun- try to the support of a policy that the pro-slavery Adminis- tration would have been bound to respect, or else provoke a war at once; but neither side was then ready for it. Reeder passed from the Kansas question on the side of the pro-slavery leaders, and was soon in the better work THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 557 of contending for a free State, but always with a frailty. After he turned, he fell to denouncing the law, and Judge Douglas for agreeing to it. This was the same law that he had so faithlessly failed to enforce. Caleb Gushing, At- torney-General and general contortionist of the Jefferson Davis pro-slavery Administration, very unceremoniously disposed of Reeder when he went to Washington to de- mand justice against the armed body of Missourians, whom he had made, by his certificates, the Kansas Territorial Legislature. Gushing, addressing him, said: "You state that this Legislature is the creature of force and fraud. Which shall we believe: your official certificates, which you issued to these members under seal, or your siTbsequent declarations to us in private?" Under the Territorial act the governor had the author- ity of fixing the capital or seat of government. Although Stringfellow and the Missouri body remonstrated earnestly, Eeeder fixed Pawnee, a small settlement of two or three families and as many houses adjoining Fort Riley, as the capital. This place was one hundred and ten miles west of the Missouri, on the Kansas River. This angered the Missourians, who had no disposition to go so far into a sparsely-settled region, one hundred and twenty miles from Western Missouri, which was the actual seat of govern- ment, from which the members did not intend to be more than one day's travel distant. Therefore, as soon as Reeder was removed, they moved back to Shawnee Mission, on the Missouri, convenient to their homes. Their real session for work bes:an Julv 16th, and con- tinued to August 30th. It was so timed in order to have all their lawmaking done before the arrival of the new governor. iVmong their first acts were those to unseat all the free State members, even before they had appeared, and seat their own. They passed a separate act making it a capital offense to assist escaping slaves into or out of 558 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the Territor}^ and a felony punishable with hard labor from two to five years, to conceal or aid escaping slaves, to cir- culate anti-slavery publications or documents, or to deny the right to hold slaves in the Territory. They passed another statute requiring all voters to swear to support the Fugitive-slave Law. In addition, with the names and titles changed to suit Territorial conditions, with their Draconian penalties added, they adopted the statutes of Missouri in a lump as the laws of the Territory. A certain Judge Lecompte was superserviceable to them. He decided, obiter dictum, that the laws of this migrating body of Missourians were the laws of the United States, that any one guilty of violating or resisting these dragnets, that would have delighted Philip the Second, committed high treason, and that on accusation all such prima facie criminals should be subject to arrest and trial at once. The Mis- sourians located the permanent capital on the south side of the Kansas Eiver, a few miles west, and named this famous seat of Missouri-propagated law and iniquity Lecompton, in recognition of his services. This memorable name was sug- gested by the editor of the Squatter Sovereign, the mimic "candle-box" Calhoun, and Sheriff Jones; but Lecompton never throve, it was too famous, and came out of too much wickedness, and is as undiscernible as any one of the "cities of the plain." These roving Missourians before adjourning passed a concurrent resolution declaring "The purpose and proposal to organize a ISTational Democratic party, having already mis- led some of our friends, wall, if it is further pursued, divide our party, and therefore it is the duty of the pro-slavery Union-loving men of Kansas to know but the one issue of slavery, and that any party making or attempting to make any other should be held to be an ally of Abolitionism and disunion." It is not strange that this prowling horde, when assured THE MEN OF TTTS TIME. 559 that the odious work of setting up the forms of' law to en- slave the Territory was complete, having received no more remuneration than would "feed and fire up" such men, turned their attention to thrifty and profitable disposal of franchises, to which one-sixth of their published acts were devoted. They chartered railroad companies, insurance com- panies, toll-bridges, ferries, coal-mines, plank-roads, and whatever could be made an exclusive use of public property or franchise. They organized several counties, which, with their courts, clerks, tax-gatherers, and other offices, afforded an office for every one among them who could read and write. The location for the State capital too, that was to be, was ten miles from any other town or village, where there was land, air, and expansion room enoiigh in their platted additions to give a corner lot to every one who would take it. Wilson Shannon, of Ohio, succeeded Reeder as governor, September 1, 1855. He made a reasonable effort to preserve the peace and execute the laws of the Territory. He be- lieved that the laws enacted by the migrating Missourians were binding statutes, and those under which the Territory should be governed. The tales of slavery's victory spread all over the countr}', and freedom seemed languishing and list- less in the house of its friends. The few faithful friends it had, and those who believed in a free State, had not given up the hope that help in some Avay M'ould come to them; but so far their opposition against border ruffianism had taken no practicable form, and the settlers were not as yet organized for any counter movement against slavery. Their center of settlements and their strongest one was at Law- rence. During the progress of the diabolical work the people of the free States were being aroused to the danger in many ways. The news of the crisis on the border and of every day's happenings Avas carried all over the North and the West almost on the winijs of the winds. Thev were 560 ABBAHAM LINCOLN. a reading people, and as surely as they enjoyed libert}'', so surely they resolved to help their sorely-oppressed fellow- citizens on the frontier in Kansas. Every untrammeled man and newspaper in the free States sent a message of hope and a promise of relief to our free-State brethren. The settlement of Kansas was first made by those com- ing under the help of the aid societies, which made the nucleus of several forming settlements. They were clear- headed, industrious, law-abiding people, who soon realized what there was in the situation, and in a devoted, persevering way set about making their homes habitable and comfortable. Soon after their arrival in 1854, they opened up farms along the fertile valley of the Kansas Eiver and several other small streams. They erected hotels, business establishments, and offices, and introduced printing-presses. After the adjournment of the "Bogus Legislature," as it was commonly called, it became generally known that all the powers of the slavery propagandists at Washington and in the West were to be used to complete their wretched work. It was found that the conflict offered by the invaders had to be taken up, and as there could be no toleration of any other issue than slavery, a divided opposition on the free State side, even by what was supposed as a jSTational Demo- cratic party, could not exist. The friends of freedom and a free State decided that all other party divisions or affili- ations should be abandoned, and that all should unite for the common good under the name of the Free State party of Kansas, and contend as they might be able and were per- mitted in their cause. They knew that about all of the actual settlers were anti-slavery people, and in spite of all threatenings and obstacles in their way they felt confident of ultimate success. Their numbers were increasing so fast that in the fall of 1855, by a careful reckoning, the popula- tion was estimated at twelve thousand, an increase of four thousand in the first vear of settlement. CHAPTER XXY. THE ejected members of the Legislature, who had been given certificates of election by Governor Eeeder, met and held frequent conferences together, and in consul- tation with the people, as to the best course to pursue from time to time for several months. Finally after consider- ation, it was determined to call a mass convention, which was to meet at Big Springs, a few miles west of Lawrence, September 5, 1855, where a two-days' convention was held. The critical situation of affairs was considered, and the best preparations that were possible at the time were agreed to, when organized resistance to the invasion and the introduc- tion of slavery was inaugurated. Ex-Governor Eeeder, who had become an ardent free State advocate after his removal, was present. He, with other members of a committee, submitted resolutions de- nouncing the "Bogus Legislature" and all its acts as usur- pations. They counseled submission as long as there was hope for a peaceful settlement; but if a bloody issue was forced upon them they determined to resist and defend themselves and their homes at all hazards. They unsparingly denounced the Missouri invaders, and protested against their acts as outrages. They nominated Eeeder as their delegate to Congress, in place of Whitfield. They fixed October 9th as the day for holding the elec- tion for a congressional delegate. The pro-slavery party offered no opposition; hence Eeeder received all of the 2,849 votes cast at the election. The Convention recom- mended the organization, arming, and mustering of several 86 561 562 ABBAEAM LINCOLN. militia companies, -which was done soon afterward. This was the first movement effectuall}^ made for resisting Atchi- son's armed invasions. The Convention resolutely determined to take no notice or cognizance of the invading Missourians as a legal Legis- lature; hence at an election held October 1st, under the management of the invaders, Whitfield received 2,721 votes, which were cast by the Missourians and as many pro-slavery residents as participated, about three hundred. At this Big Springs Convention means were agreed upon unanimously for the selection of delegates, who were to assemble at Topeka for the purpose of framing and submit- ting to the legally-qualified voters a free State Constitution. These Conventions and the voting under their authority positively developed the population and voting strength of the free State people, for in the uncertain, threatened vio- lence and unsettled conditions about them only those with the courage to stand by their convictions were likely to participate in a free State Convention or election. Finding by their several undertakings that their popula- tion was as much as twelve thousand, and their voting strength as much as three thousand, and that they were practically unanimous in their determination to make the Territory a free State, it was as good as settled there that it would take more Missourians than had at any time crossed the border in their marauding invasions to make it any- thing else. These delegates, with full knowledge of their responsi- bilities and in pursuance of their settled policy to resist every invasion of their Territory and their rights, and fully believing that antagonism to Atchison and his armed hordes meant war, they yet deliberately assembled at Topeka on the 23d of October. Here they calmly proceeded to frame a State Constitution for submission to the legal voters. In due time, after careful consideration of every interest, in- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 563 eluding that of the slaveholders and their two or three hun- dred slaves, a carefully-considered and well-prepared funda- mental law was submitted to the people, to be voted on by them on December 15th. The Constitution was adopted by an affirmative vote of 1,731, with no more than 45 against, the Missourians not voting. The election came on the day of a severe winter storm, which, taken with the knowledge that there was little opposition to it, accounts for the smaller vote than usual at that election. Of the instrument little objection could have been made to it by any except those who were attempting to force slavery upon an unwilling people. A reasonable time was given the venturesome slaveholders to remove their slaves, who were only testing the forbearance of the free State people. At the same time they were fore- stalling and forcing in every way that their hazardous action could a favorable consideration of their assumed right to hold slaves in any Territory of the United States, even before local laws establishing slavery had been passed. The petition for admission as a free State was presented to the Senate and House of Eepresentatives, March 21, 185G. For this procedure they had precedent and good authority, as held by the Attorney-General of the United States, in the admission of Arkansas, "That citizens of the Territories possess the constitutional right to assemble and petition Congress for the redress of grievances; that the form of petition is immaterial; as the power of Congress over the whole subject is plenary, they may accept any Constitution, however framed, which in their judgment meets the sense of the people affected by it." Another election was held by the free State people, January 15, 1856, for the election of State officers and a Legislature as provided for in the Constitution, at which Charles Eobinson, of Lawrence, received 1,296 votes out of 1,706 for governor, and Delahay received 1,628 votes for delegate to Congress without opposition. The Legis- 564 Aim All AM uycoLN. lature, which was organized soon after, elected Andrew H. Keeder and James II. Lane senators from the State on the 4th of March following. In this way a Constitution with reasonable protection in legal form, with officers, and provided with all the ma- chinery of our simple republican system, was made and adopted in full accord with the "squatter sovereignty" prin- ciple under which the Territory was called into existence, lacking only the authority of Congress to make it a State, as invited and foreshadowed by that same authority when it was opened to settlement. Nevertheless, Kansas did not seem to be much nearer Statehood than when the contest began, but every day was forging ahead a stronger power in the Nation than the slave-propaganda. ^fuch has been said of the cliringing attitude and rela- tion of ])oliticians, public men, and the statesmen of that time. Men were blinded by the prejudices and teaching of generations, bo that they were easily wrought into a fury over the excitable subject of slavery that had divided the people and the States from the beginning. Personal de- nunciations and condemnations were so common that before the war began they came to be little heeded. The truth is, that thousands of the best and wisest men of the period were startled, astonished, and turned away from the party relations of a lifetime. The fault seemed not to be that they were changing, for that was every man's right and privilege, but that the turn-overs and new recruits became too zealous, and were not as tolerant of those who did not turn with them as they should have been, and did not do to others as they would have had others do unto them. All through this changing drama that became tragedy the truth of Gridley's first statement became more plain and discernible, "that if we taught fieedom in the free States as zealously as they taught slavery in the South for two or three generations, we would all be Abolitionists." THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 565 But in the heat of this furious border warfare and the apti- tude of the free State people to learn, the change was going on in years instead of generations. The plan to make Kansas a State under the Topeka Constitution taken alone would have been premature for several apparent and sufficient reasons, one of the most perti- nent being the small population in a Territory that was rapidly filling up; but as a counter advance against the slavery movement and to unite the free State people, who were mostly Democrats in the beginning, it was a courageous movement and defiant necessity. The House of Representatives in 1856 elected Nathaniel P. Banks as Speaker. The House, after going through sev- eral tedious delays because of its want of leaders, neverthe- less got ready, in the best way such a slow-moving body could, to uncover the hell that was killing men and burning out their liberties along the Kansas-Missouri border. The doings of the Convention at Topeka reached the House of Representatives at Washington, where years before John Quincy Adams had triumphed over wooden heads and the foes of the right of petition. But the conditions were now changed, and the Banks House of Representatives was anxious to hear what was going on, without fear or favor. Truthful stories all ran that there was a desperate conflict on the border. The House took up the question in its most earnest and inquisitive way of getting at the truth. Ex-Governor Reeder appeared before them with his pe- tition, asking admission and setting forth the facts of the horrible conspiracy. The House erupted into one of the most furious discussions ever held in that body. It opened up the contest in a way that was both vigorous and earnest, resulting in disputes and assaults and threatenings. One assault almost killed Senator Sumner, and there were threat- ened like assaults on other members of the House and Senate. Nevertheless the contest of freedom against slavery was 566 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. accepted as it had been by the free State people at Topeka. An investigating committee that was willing to undertake the responsibility, one that would fearlessly gather all the evidence and reveal the whole truth regardless of denunci- ation, intimidation, threats, or blows, was appointed. Two very well informed and inquisitive members of the majority, and another, of the minority, as competent, but not as inquisitive, a friend of Atchison, were appointed. These three, Howard of Michigan, Sherman of Ohio, and Oliver of St. Joseph, Missouri, made up the committee, who were directed to investigate the furious horror then in progress on the border. Such they found it and reported it, all agreeing except Oliver, who knew all about it before going West, but who could not or would not get the facts into reportable shape, as the others did so well and so effectively. The body became known as the Howard Committee, which went over the ground along the border and took evi- dence in all the counties, both in Kansas and Missouri. They were indefatigable, untiring, and unsparing in the examination of the principal actors, who participated in all or part of it. They investigated as far as it was possible, and took the testimony of as many impartial witnesses as they could find. They gathered a mass of sworn and certi- fied testimony amounting to twelve hundred pages, which made a complete revelation of the crime and conspiracy against freedom in Kansas. It was an exposure of the armed Missouri invasions and usurpations of power, for the first time in authoritative form, two years after the plans of the slave-leaders had been in active operation. The report was so complete and so full in detail as testi- fied to on both sides, with such unanswerable proof of the extent of the conspiracy, as to make it a public matter sver afterward. With all this mass of convincing evidence against the Territorial officers, the invaders, and their abettors, no THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 567 one of them was ever brought to trial, nor was any one of them up to that time relieved or discharged from office save Keeder, who was the only one that had ever made any at- tempt honestly to enforce the law. In part the committee reported that, "Every election has been controlled, not by citizens of the Territory, but by citizens of Missouri, and as a consequence every officer in the Territory from constable to legislators, except those ap- pointed by the President, owe their positions to non-resident voters. Xone have been elected by the settlers, and your committee have been unable to find that any political power whatever, however unimportant, has been exercised by the people of the Territory. The people of the Territory have refrained purposely from the exercise of their political and civil rights. They made no attempt to vote or hold office, or bring suits at law or ask recognition, doing so to preserve the peace, which was their only course, or provoke a more alarming condition." The peaceful disposition and abstinence of these people from all public concerns was about all that was left as the basis for Mr. Oliver's minority report, which related that "There was no evidence that any violence was resorted to or force employed by which men were prevented from voting." This was true in so far that all the people realized the folly of such an attempt, and did not vote or attempt it. In April, 1856, several bodies of armed men arrived in Kansas from the South, variously estimated from five to eight hundred. They were taken there by Buford of Ala- bama, Wilkes of Virginia, Treadwell of South Carolina, Titus of Florida, and Hampton of Kentucky. These were being distributed throughout the Territory very much like militia, while the Howard Committee was present gathering testimony and probing the migrations, invasions, and usurp- ing office-holders and their horrible work to the bottom. From the time of the report of this Howard Committee, 568 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the free States occupied an advanced position on the slavery question. Before this, conservatism, concession, and com- promise prevailed, because of arrogated rights on the part of the slaveholders, and the desire of the peacefully-inclined people of the free States to avoid the horrors of civil or internecine war. The revelations of the committee unques- tionably proved, if they proved anything, that the slave- propaganda, which fully controlled Pierce's Administration, was fully determined to force slavery into Kansas, right or wrong, law or no law, and by force of arms if necessary. The work was actually in progress at the time, and the armed invasion, pillaging, marauding, and driving men from their homes was planned and plotted at Washington. It is one of the certainties of history that the right of self-government and the progress in the world's long con- tention, and unnumbered conflicts for the rights of men have been very slow, on our continent as well as everywhere else. The Colonists bore the exactions and oppressions of Great Britain for more than a century. Up to 1850 our people pleaded and dallied and compromised with the slave- holders, in the vain hope that in time friendly treatment and reasonable protection would result in peaceful emanci- pation. Notwithstanding this well-understood leniency and the peacefvil desires of our people, it is as certain as it is slow, that any measure taken up, believed in, demonstrated to be right and just, without considering what delays and beset- ments it may encounter, will ultimately prevail, and the enforcement will be generally as strong and powerful as the hindrances and opposition have made it necessary to de- velop it. Patriots and all friends of human liberty should be patient, long-suffering, and persevering, for the greed and avarice of men as it is revealed and measured in all history, will be strong and powerful yet for centuries. Society is so constituted that with the best purposes, the TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 569 most capable leadership, and the strongest combinations of men in behalf of right and justice, only one of the crushing human burdens can be lifted off at a time, and there are many of them left to be unloaded. We may judge of the progress of mankind, as we know that away back in the dim and misty eras of ihe past liberty began with legions of wrongs to contend against, with men so low that it was often a reform to enslave them. It is now nineteen centuries since the gospel of peace and equal manhood were authoritatively given to man, and still to-day the beautiful gospel of the Master is no more to most men than a system to be denounced as socialism, or a dangerous belief of some kind. It is so construed and inter- preted by various monarchs of the earth, and their worst hypocritical followers who rob men of their rights under the name of free government. After the Topeka meeting, there was war against slavery in Kansas in rebuttal, as there had been war levied and carried on for several months by armed invaders to take it there. These men who were there to carry on this defense of freedom were Christians, as the heroes who founded the Nation were. They were there to fight and serve and suffer in the midnight vigil, the water-soaked camp, the gathering for war, the weary watch and march. Not for money, not surely for office, not for distinction were they suffering and serving in the great cause, for few of them were known out of their neighborhoods. Not one in a thousand of these brave and patriotic men ever expected better reward than the approval of his own conscience. They were in the contest for the rights of their fellow-men — the black men first, because they were firmest held under the foot of the oppressor, and then for their fellow-men of their own race. Those who contend for wealth and power and franchise seldom stand in the ranks and fight. They reckon their 570 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. lives too valuable. The kingly and commercial usurpers who wage war or use extortion in any form against weaker people, as the slaveholders did, always do so for the wealth, the spoils, the plunder, the monopolies, or the commerce won by the blood and the sacrifice of the men who fight for the rights and liberties of mankind. They hold on in their oppression until they provoke revolt or revolution, which sometimes brings another overturning on the road to true democracy. Is this struggle for the rights of men all socialism, or was Cain right and not his "brother's keeper?" As another measure in the conduct of the struggle, the Topeka movement being very much in the way, the Pierce- Jefferson Davis Administration promulgated an order of the President, not to disperse or drive back the invaders, but to disperse the assemblages of the citizens under the Topeka plan for a free State. This proclamation of the President was issued, commanding "All persons engaged in unlawful combinations against the constituted authorities of the Territory of Kansas or of the United States to dis- perse at once." With this authority, all that he desired, the light-headed, narrow-visioned Judge Lecompte held that the invaders' Legislature was the creature of congressional law; that the Legislature being an instrument of Congress, their laws were of United States authority; therefore all persons violating these laws were liable to arrest, and should be indicted for high treason. He continued: "Even if re- sistance had not been made, the combination for it had been organized, then it would be your duty to find bills for constructive treason, as the courts have decided that the blow need not be struck, but only the intention made evi- dent." With this prevailing pro-slavery madness and a drastic code that would have found a man guilty who was carrying the Declaration of Independence or the New Testament, this petty tyrant issued writs for the arrest of hundreds of THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 571 peaceful, non-disturbing citizens. One Jones, postmaster of Weston, Missouri, the seat of the invaders and their con- spiring den under Atchison, came over and was made sheriff of Douglas County, in which the settlement of Lawrence was situated. Before he was postmaster he had been "Just a common bully'' in the frontier towns, where so many wild and badly- behaved men were in the crowds rushing across the plains. In such places a man that could "make believe and appear dangerous" was a necessity, and Jones was their man. By the time of the border war the emigration across the country had slackened, and the slave-leaders having urgent need for a coarse, blustering fellow who covild carry on usurpation on the Chinese plan, being nearly all noise and demonstra- tion, Jones was their man. They filled his pockets with writs, indictments, and bills of Lecompte's rump courts against hundreds of inoffensive citizens for actual treason and misprision of treason, treason before the fact and after the fact, which Jones neither com- prehended nor understood. He did not need to understand it, so long as he got the victims' names, and could intimidate them in every way possible, and drive them out of the Territory. His task was to terrorize all he could, and arrest all that could be held in custody, thus making enormous fees and subsistence charges against the United States. Besides this, they carried on the most wanton and malicious prose- cution of the leading citizens of the Territory, with no other offense than claiming their right under all law, even this infamous code of the invaders, to make it a free State. Before any writs were issued, Eobinson, the free State governor-elect, was followed on his way east, and arrested at Lexington, Missouri, where every preparation for his arrest had been anticipated, including the assent of the governor of Missouri. Robinson was held under military arrest four months, without other charge than the indictable 572 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. offense of having participated in the organization of a State Government under the Topeka Constitution. James H. Lane, Ex-Governor Reeder, and several hun- dred others were indicted, and a great many of them were arrested and held in confinement for various terms and in sundry places. Xone were tried. Xo such action was in- tended. The free State men were ready for trial any day. There would have been no lack of defense. Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and several others, who offered, were anxious to take up the defense. The Attorney-General at Washington was notified of this, when very suddenly the prisoners were all released, and poor Jones was censured for unnecessary ac- tivity. It was only a "scare-you-out" sort of business. Lane received timely notice that they were on his trail with a writ. He was not ready for a conflict with them. He had a strong head, a stiff' neck, and the grit to fight when he got ready; but he was not going to be taken at a dis- advantage. He did n't want to waste valuable time in idle confinement, so he got north through Iowa rapidly, went to work, and worked all the way with indomitable will, and with substantial help from friends of freedom all over the country. He was soon enabled to send hundreds of well- equipped young emigrants on his established route to Kan- sas. Part of their outfit was a Sharp's rifle, a breech-load- ing, repeating, Yankee invention, worked out in a gun of the longest range and highest-killing capacity of any weapon of the kind then in use. These same Sharp's rifles, it should be noted, created more respect for an Abolitionist and the free State men all around, whether they were Democrats, Old-lino Whigs, or of no party, than all the peace meetings ever held by any of Pierce's and Davis's governors. One hundred of these "repeating guns," in the hands of one of "Jim Lane's com- panies," made a peaceful zone twenty miles around in every direction. THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 573 These brave citizens had nothing at the start but their bare hands, resolute hearts, and a just cause. They began with twos and threes, and then perhaps with a dozen; and in time the Topeka movement came; but it was no more than a peaceful assembling that could call out and prepare for organizing courts and militia forces in the future. They were so weak in their beginnings that their first movements invited the persecutions of the previously armed mobs and blustering cowards. Although it was a w^eak movement in its inception, it did that which it was intended to do — it aroused those who had the strength and knew well how to use it. The freedom-believing people of that day, all over our country, outside the power of the slaveocracy, were not cor- rupted with any form of obnoxious wealth or power, or an aristocracy of any kind; hence when they came to know that their brethren in Kansas were in distress and peril, relief of the kind needed poured into the Territory in such abundance that ever after the report of the Howard Com- mittee the free State men always had the means at hand to defeat the slave power under Atchison, with all his support at Washington. The free State people did not develop, or have one man among them who had all the many needed qualities of pa- tience, devotion and caution, courage, determination, and the high military capacity to be a civil and military leader in himself. It was not then, nor so far now, an ordinary event to find one in an emergency, having all these qualities of high leadership; but they had two or three hundred of the brighest young men in the land, with, talents and in- dustry, education and character, that honored them as they would have done any people. Out of these there were three men in the Kansas-Missouri border war, with widely-differ- ing character and capacities, who were nevertheless able, conspicuous, fearless, and capable leaders in that desperate 574 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. strife. Either one of them, with a force equal in number to Atchison's command and the sustaining power of the slave aristocracy at Washington, could easily, in any mili- tary undertaking, have driven out the invaders or destroyed them in a conflict of short duration. Of these, there was Governor Eobinson, who was mild in disposition, cautious and learned, a prudent and discreet leader under all conditions, with spirit and strong character which rose above senseless brutal provocations, a man who could govern himself, who, with Atchison's opportunities, could have maintained his leadership and remained a sena- tor, for his lifetime probably, had the honor come, as it did to Atchison. There was "Jim Lane," whom to describe here as he should be described, can not be attempted. There were many bright and talented men who knew him well, yet no one of them has ever been able to reveal his true character in a short sketch. He was a man who was not all bad, nor was he by any means all good; but for the niche he filled in the border war he was built up and put together with as much harmony and appropriateness as a well-molded ship is for the sea. He had the brawny strength, the strong limbs, the swelling chest, the bronzed and wind-swept face, the toughened muscles and sinews, that no one in the work he was in and had in hand from day to day could get along without. He was keen-witted, crafty, and had the cunning of a fox. He could fight, and had no personal fear about it. He could often do better than make a direct assault, for he knew well how to annoy, harass, surprise, and disturb his enemy, and his fights were usually brought on in the least- expected maneuver. He could run away to entice his enemy to disadvantage. In all, he could more effectively carry on the border war than any other man in the work on either side. He was the man who conducted it in such venture- THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 575 some, plunging campaigns, and desultory attacks, that the enemy would never meet him. Pie was anxious to drive out every invader, and in all probability could have done so in a few weeks; but the prudent Robinson and some others held him back. Such a course would probably have doubled the invasion under orders of the regime at Washington, or have created an opportunity to use the army with all its force to repel every free State man from Kansas. Hence the prudent plan required Lane, as well as all the rest of them, to remain in as peaceful possession of their homes as possible, and do no more than carry on a defensive war. Lane was a Marshal Soult sort of a man, whose history is valuable as an example to the inquiring men of to-day, principally because of the actual work he did in driving the invaders out, and making Kansas a free State. He was not a great man, measured according to the height and pro- portions of the men with Avhom he served at home and at Washington ; but for a man that could cope with the riotous and ruffian-like enemies, who were bullying and forcing slavery into the Territory, he was a man above all others on the border to rely upon, and a match for two like Atchi- son any day. There was John Brown of Ossawatomie, of such skill, talent, and unflinching character that he held his own in one day's battle with thirty against five hundred. His ca- pacity for the desperate war of the border made him a chief- tain, whatever his command might be. Like all of them engaged in the border work, whether fighting, marauding, or defending, their forces were usually small like his, run- ning from twenty to one hundred, seldom more. He was a man devoutly inclined, reverential, fearing God as became him and his ancestry for generations. He met the emer- gencies of war with courage and complacency, so that when he felt it to be his duty, he even delighted in persecution and martyrdom. 576 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. His ancestry was Puritan. They came over in the May- flower. They were not of the hesitating, doubtful kind of men. He was born in Connecticut about 1800. Before the war for the Union he had brought up a dutiful family. Four of his sons and their families migrated to Kansas in 1854, seeking homes, where they were peaceful, industrious citi- zens. Brown's anti-slavery ideas came honestly and legiti- mately, not by any kind of unusual happening, but as the result of his training and education. He grew and developed to manhood in the school of Gerrit Smith and William Lloyd Garrison. He was a Charles Sumner sort of a man, who, while not believing in blows as a means of settlement, yet who never deserted his cause, and who, whether with argu- ment or blows, brought his antagonist down with him when- ever he could. In their Kansas settlements his sons were harassed, plundered, and driven from their homes by the Missouri invaders. He went to their relief, as he believed to be right, and as a father should. He took arms and ammunition. His standing as a leader and defender of homes amon? those beleaguered free State people is best avouched and disclosed in the unsparing denunciation he lived under, the plundering, pillaging, and murderous warfare carried on against his people. They drove his sons from their homes, and plundered them of whatever could be taken away, and sought for months to kill all of them, and did succeed in killing one. They sought to kill him and his family. He was a Wal- lace of Ellerslie in their path, and the bloody slave-masters wanted his life. He was hunted as a beast; but when he turned on them they fled, for they did not desire a fair encounter. He became over-confident. He was exasperated, but did not lose his reason. Like Lane in part, he was too daring, and never a fully-equipped leader, but one that did great and effectual service in the strife so long as he was TEE MEN OF HIS TIME. 577 under ilio prudent counsel of Robinson. Of ali of those sorely-pressed people, Eobinson possessed the most perfect fitness for a leader. When Brown was hunted down like a wild animal, and his children were driven from their homes, plundered, and slain, by some unknown movement he was separated from Eobinson. Being too independent for any other man's control, he finally turned on his pursuers, and struck a blow that shattered their rotten system of slavery to the center. He lost his life as he expected, in the contingencies that he foresaw might happen in his raid into Virginia. In his sacrifice the war for and against slavery began. He had been engaged in the strife two years, and he gave and took blows as men do in conflict. He neither shrunk nor avoided the consequences of his perilous acts. He took up the gauntlet of war hurled upon him in a peaceful home, and was in the desperate wager of battle henceforward for the rights of men, under the heroic legend, that "resistance to trj'ants is obedience to God." The outraged people of the free States were so far misled that they offered unceasing apologies for him. Political parties denied affiliation with him. Wounded and dying, the old man was left almost alone; but dragged down and humiliated by an ignominious death, he walked face to face, unshaken and happy, to the presence of the great Jehovah. He was tried in a little court in Virginia, where men, women, and children, not only black, but three-quarters white, were raised, and sold South like cattle. Not one of his captors, prosecutors, or executioners went with him into the shining court, and not one of them could have done so with half the courage, calmness, and composure that he did. The verdict of this last court had no terrors for the over- wrought enthusiast, but it did have for the sin-cursed Na- tion, and the people stood appalled. This old man and his dozen followers, with no other weapons than iron pikes, 87 578 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. knocked a hole into tlie man-cursed prison, and brought down its tumbling ruins all about him. Although he went down himself, it was only before the whole power of the State of Virginia and its governor and the President of the United States and the army, the navy, and the marine corps ; but his sacrifice crippled the cruel system. From this time the slave-leaders realized as fully as they ever did that slavery henceforward could exist only by force of arms. Brown had torn open the barricade that hid their system, its weakness and its desperation. They had brought their weapons for his destruction, enlarged the war of the border counties of Kansas and Missouri; and in taking up the sword for their inhuman system, and in their heartless execution of one whose son the}'^ had slain, they invited the ruin and destruction that came. This is no apology for Brown of Ossawatomie. He asked none for himself, and as the tragic events were beyond and above all human knowledge or control, our little ideas are as nothing in the great movements of the world. In this Ossawatomie man's life there was a startling page for humanity. The slaveholders in their madness ventured war. This enthusiast of pikes was their first conspicuous victim, but he went down a hero. His death threw a blazing light into the dark pit of this execrable slavery that nothing but human sacrifice could have done, and it startled the Nation with its chamber of horrors. Brown violated the laws of Virginia. He was found guilty before their courts and under their indictments. His trial was as fair and impartial as could be under their code. He was protected from the violence of the mob. He ac- knowledged his acts, and so far stood his own accuser. He understood the consequence, and though others did for him, he neither asked nor expected mercy. He was pronounced guilty, and, without complaining, died on the scaffold, the mockery of mankind. THE MEN OF 1118 TIME. 579 Slaverj'^ was a system so altogether bad that, in the pres- ence of this war of pikes, its thousands of beneficiaries stood shivering; and yet this assault was so feeble that a squad of policemen could have suppressed it. In their fear they realized that it could continue to exist only by forcing its oppressed victims, the half-ruined and constantly-degraded people of the South, into war to sustain it. There is no doubt now that their leaders, who were wiser than the children of light, knew for years before it came that they would need to sustain it in war. They planned for it more earnestly and vigorously for a generation, with more zeal and attention than they gave to any other civil, military, or industrial institution. Nimmo Browne told Judge Douglas in 1845 that the war with Mexico was carried on mostly for the extension of slavery, and that the same men, their followers, the slavery- making spirit, in their slave propagandism would turn that same power of arms against any opposition to its protection, existence, or extension into our own or any other nation's territory. His words proved all too true, and in 1854-56 war was levied against the free State people of Kansas, of whom the noted victim and his sons were peaceful and law- abiding members. However the predictions might have varied, the actual horror, the war for a slave territory, the dreaded curse of mankind, was inaugurated. This w^as not done by the settlers, the squatter sovereigns, the poor men with their families building up their homes. It is true that many of them had arms as they traveled westward. It was their common custom, and these were carried for their protection and to get a share of the little game left by the Indians. However, almost without exception, men settling in a new country with their wives and little ones around them, are inclined to plows, hammers, and field machinery, instead of guns, and are much more happy when caring for their 680 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. flocks and herds than in thinking of marauding campaigns. These home-building people never provoke hostilities, and shun war as they do pestilence; hence it appears as clear as the light of day that these free State settlers did not begin or contemplate war. As war was levied and carried on against these people, and as their inclinations were all on the side of peace, it is a pertinent question, who did levy this deadly war? The Howard Committee uncovered the plot and scheme, and gave the facts from the beginning through its bloody progress up to the time of their investigation. By this evi- dence it was shown that as many as five thousand ruffians held and armed and fed along the Missouri border, was the force used, and they were the dastardly perpetrators of the wicked crime. Stringfellow, Woodson, Lecompte, Calhoun, Jones and Buford, Titus, and others, were the smaller lead- ers, all under absolute control of Atchison, senator from Missouri, acting Vice-President. Thus traced to its proper source, it was the work of the slave-power of Calhoun, Jef- ferson Davis, and their associates, working through and having control of President Pierce's Administration and the co-ordinate powers of the Government, except the House of Eepresentatives and the loyal old general of the army, Winfield Scott, with part of our small army. This was in form the real situation, that to extend slavery into Kansas, the United States Government, under control of the slave-power, had levied war against its own citizens, including all who were opposed to this extension of slavery. The Browns of Ossawatomie were a part of these outraged people, and the father, the man of pikes, fought back and tackled the monster evil in its den, in one of its most re- spectable habitations. Brown took the movement as war, which, according to its history, he properly judged it to be. His people had been robbed and killed and driven from their homes, where there THE MEN OF HIS TIME. 581 was no hand to save, all in the name of the Republic and all under the direction of its Vice-President on the border, and its President and Cabinet at Washington. Infatuated with his victories, and without the calm and prudent control of Robinson or the masterly work and details of Lane, he plunged into the vitals of the evil system that would govern the Nation or compass the ruin of its liberties, and perished. In all fair and modern rules or under cartels in war, this old man, exasperated and fighting back as he had done, be- cause he and his people were first assaulted, should have been held a prisoner of war, subject to exchange. He and his men were as much prisoners of war, or more so, than the ruffians caught on the border, who were always treated well and exchanged or released. But this man of pikes had his mission. It was not to be finished until he stood face to face in the presence of his Maker. He stood his trial and persecution without complaint, and his torture and his pass- ing well. He stood in the awful Presence, how we know not. What of his accusers and his executioners, and what were they doing? They were still levying war and plotting their country's ruin. During all this, the press, the rostrum, halls and courts and pulpits, were full of loyal and anti- slavery people, so professed, who disclaimed any sympathy or affiliation with those who had made the invasion into Virginia. They attributed it to the desperation or madness of the man, for which there was ample reason. They were busy trying to make up plausible excuses that Brown utterly rejected. They were trying to apologize for a few killed in the opening slavery war in Virginia, entirely overlooking the hundreds slain by the slave-power in the cold-blooded, villainous war of the border, for which no one was ever arrested. The Nation slowly awoke, stood amazed, appalled. The man of pikes was a martyr. If he had invaded a State and committed violence, it was in war, and there were a full 582 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. thousand of such violaters of law who were then enjoying the favor and promotion of the Government, from a A^ice- President down to Sheriff Jones and the lesser Calhoun. The thoughtful, great-hearted people of the Eepublic realized their negligence. In the sacrifice God called the Nation to repentance, and afterwards in bitter sorrow, with its wasted millions and buried heroes in every churchyard, it endured his penalties for as wicked a system as ever cursed the people of any nation. John Brown of Ossa- watomie took his cause before the court of Jehovah ; whereas, on earth, there were none to defend, in that high Court of heaven there were none to accuse him. END OF VOLUME I. -"-ST 03? ^ i '#•*'*» _ '# •♦" ^ , ^ '» • •* :!!!tiili«i!ili''i;i:i;:|iilif ip * A A Mi